Wall Street coasts toward the end of another winning month

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are coasting toward their latest winning month. The S&P 500 edged down 0.1% in early trading Tuesday. The main measure of the U.S. stock market’s health is on track for a fifth straight winning month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed, and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.2%. A couple reports on the economy coming later in the morning could shift trading. One will show how confident U.S. consumers are feeling when the job market has slowed and inflation has remained high. A second will show how many job openings employers were advertising at the end of August.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Wall Street followed global markets lower Tuesday as a partisan standoff over heath care and spending pushed the United States closer to federal government shutdown.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each fell 0.2% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.3%.

If Democrats and Republicans in Congress are unable to come to an agreement to extend federal funding, the government will shut down on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m., at which time thousands of federal workers stand to be furloughed or permanently laid off.

Senate Democrats say they won’t vote for a temporary funding bill unless Republicans include an extension of expiring health care benefits, among other demands. President Donald Trump and Republicans are refusing to negotiate at all, arguing that it is a stripped down, “clean” bill that should be noncontroversial.

Past shutdowns have been short-lived and had minimal impact on markets and the economy, but if the standoff persists, it could delay the collection and release of economic data, such as on jobs and inflation.

This shutdown may also be different because the White House may push for large-scale firings of federal workers.

“It feels as though the market has already flogged the government shutdown story from every conceivable angle, the way traders circle a fading theme until there’s nothing left but dust. Yet with the clock ticking down to less than 24 hours before the doors are slated to close in Washington, the narrative refuses to die,” said Stephen Innes. managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

A report is due Friday about how many jobs U.S. employers created and cut last month. The hope is that it will be balanced enough to keep the Federal Reserve on track to continue cutting interest rates.

If Friday’s job numbers prove too strong, they could make the Fed less willing to cut rates. That could hurt stocks, which already face criticism that they’ve become too expensive following their big rally.

In equities trading, shares of EchoStar Corp. surged for the third time in the past month on media reports that Verizon is in talks to acquire some of the telecom company's spectrum licenses for 5G use.

EchoStar sold off some of its spectrum licenses to SpaceX earlier this month and to AT&T in late August. Echostar shares were up 8.6% before the bell Tuesday, to about $80 each. Shares were going for less than $30 each before the AT&T deal was announced on Aug. 26.

Coming later Tuesday are a government report on job openings for August and a reading on U.S. consumer confidence.

Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, France's CAC 40 dipped 0.4%, Germany's DAX was unchanged and Britain's FTSE 100 gainedd 0.2%.

In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 declined nearly 0.3% to finish at 44,932.63.

China reported lackluster data on factory activity for September that reflect persistent weakness in the world's second largest economy as trade tensions with the U.S. weigh on exports.