US stock futures higher head of Senate vote on Trump bill
U.S. stock futures are higher as investors look to Congress' attempt to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill by the end of the week.
Over the weekend, the Senate narrowly cleared a key procedural step to advance the mega tax bill. However, it still has a way to go to get through the Senate and to a House vote. Not all Republican senators are on board, and with such a slim majority, the bill will need almost every vote to pass.
AT 6 a.m. ET, futures linked to the blue-chip Dow added 0.43%, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.37% and Nasdaq futures added 0.59%.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are looking to extend gains from record highs scored at the end of the week to close the month strong. The S&P 500 is starting the week up 4.4% on the month, just lagging the Nasdaq's 6.1% gain in June. The Dow has added about 3.7% this month so far.
Trade progress
Investors initially cheered last week a breakthrough in trade talks with China. China agreed to approve export applications for rare earths to the U.S. Rare earths had been a sticking point between the two countries. China controls 90% of the world's most powerful rare-earth magnets, and Ford Motor recently had to curtail some production due to a magnet shortage.
They also were relieved after the Trump administration signaled President Donald Trump's self-imposed July 9 deadline for countries to sign trade deals or face higher tariffs could be extended. If Trump extends the deadline, it could delay the inflation hike many economists are predicting would come with high tariffs.
However, investors were reminded quickly that risks remain after Trump abruptly terminated talks with Canada over Canada's digital services tax. Trump said he would announce new tariffs on Canada within days. Canada is the U.S.' largest trading partners.
Stocks initially fell on the Canada trade news, but it wasn't enough to push down stocks last week.
Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday.
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Mike Lee Shoves Another Bad Land Sale Provision into the Senate's Final Budget Bill
UPDATE: Facing overwhelming opposition from all Democrats and a growing number in his own party, Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee tonight withdrew his proposal to sell millions of acres of public land to help balance the federal budget. Universally reviled legislation that will sell up to 1.25 million acres of BLM land around the West starting this fall has been placed in the Senate's final budget bill which will face floor votes as early as today. Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that oversees the Interior Department's budget, released new language Friday night that doubles down on his longstanding desire to reduce the federal estate, using veiled language that justifies land sales to alleviate housing shortages in fast-growing Western cities. The bill's latest draft tightens problematic language of earlier versions that risked being flagged by the Senate parliamentarian as non-conforming for a reconciliation bill, say sources who reviewed Lee's draft late last night. But it contains the most unacceptable provisions to public-land advocates, and could open some of the West's most remote and cherished public lands for sale. Because it now includes unallocated mineral leases, it could also balloon the amount of land eligible for sale. Specifically, the final draft expands the definition of eligible BLM land, which Lee says is designed to promote affordable housing and urban infrastructure, by prioritizing federal land sales within five miles of the border of 'population centers.' Instead of using the commonly accepted definition of a population center as a municipality of 2,500 or more people, the new draft defines a population center as 'a census-designated place or incorporated municipality with a population of not less than 1,000 persons.' This provision greatly expands the eligibility of BLM land that could be sold surrounding unincorporated rural communities. Last night's draft also now allows leasing of some previously protected lands, omitting national preserves, national seashores, lakeshores, national historic sites, and national memorials and battlefields from the categories of land that could not be considered for sale. It includes unallocated subsurface mineral leasing as a qualifying covenant for land sales, along with earlier drafts that omit active surface uses and BLM land with active livestock-grazing leases from sale consideration. This allowance of unsubscribed mineral rights could greatly increase the number of eligible acres for sale to something over 3 million, say sources. That's because the BLM administers subsurface mineral rights on some 700 million onshore and offshore acres. If millions of those acres now qualify for sale because of Lee's new language 'we could be talking about the sale of way more than 1.25 million acres,' says a land-use expert who was still researching the question as of this morning. 'We could be talking 3 million and more, depending on the answer to the question of whether the BLM owns those rights or simply administers them.' Lee's latest draft also changes the definition of who can bid on this 'surplused' public land. Nominations for tracts can come from what Lee defines as 'qualified bidders.' That term is not defined in the bill. The bill extends the mandatory sale deadline from five to 10 years and increases the amount of federal money that will be used to execute these sales from $5 million to $15 million. But what's especially galling to critics of the bill, who note the many loopholes that allow disposal of federal land for purposes other than affordable housing, is that the new draft adds criteria for disposal of our most valuable lands to include a mechanism for consolidating large ranches and for including 'isolated tracts that are difficult to manage.' That last provision could list for sale some of the most valuable hunting and fishing acreage in the West. Sources noted, with rising alarm, that Lee's latest draft appears to be calibrated to make it through Senate parliamentary scrutiny. 'This appears to be an effort to try and survive parliamentarian review,' says David Willms, associate vice president for public lands for the National Wildlife Federation. 'Adding a priority of selling the highest value lands, and including subsurface rights along with the surface rights seems to be an effort to sell the provision as one with primarily budget impacts, which is necessary to survive the Byrd Rule' that requires items in reconciliation bills to have budgetary, rather than policy, implications. 'Obviously, to anyone that cares about public lands, however, that's simply a smokescreen to sell an area more than twice the size of Rocky Mountain National Park to an as-yet-undefined 'qualified bidder,'' says Willms. 'But it's also an indication of the sloppy and haphazard nature of this latest bill.' Lee's new draft is so contrary to and tone-deaf to the hundreds of thousands of calls, letters, and emails to congressional offices over the past week that some critics of the bill suggest that it's designed to fail in full Senate voting that starts today. In an Instagram reel, New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich (D) noted that the groundswell of calls to congressional offices is the 'broadest and deepest coalition that I have ever seen for public lands in my life. Keep it up. We are winning.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Senator Martin Heinrich (@senatormartinheinrich) Fellow Republican Senators, including Montana's Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy and Idaho's Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, have publicly stated their opposition to the bill. The news site NOTUS yesterday reported that Daines has the votes to kill Lee's draft in the budget reconciliation process. That's the expedited process that requires only a simple majority in both the House and Senate for passage. Republicans hold a 3-vote majority in both chambers. At least five Republicans in the House of Representatives have said they won't vote for any version of the budget bill that contains the land-sale provision. They include Montana's Ryan Zinke, Mike Simpson from Idaho, Dan Newhouse from Washington, Oregon's Cliff Bentz, and David Valadao from California — all Westerners with large public-land holdings in their congressional districts. 'At the end of the day, I would bet on this [bill language] getting kicked out, but it's gonna be a slog,' says a public-land advocate who asked not to be named as they were still reviewing the bill draft. 'I'm still wondering if, in the long run, Lee is doing more to help public lands, by inspiring so much advocacy, than to hurt them.' Land Tawney, whose group American Hunters and Anglers has been a vocal opponent of the land-sale legislation, says the latest draft confirms Lee's inability to read the national mood. Read Next: Silencer Deregulation Plan Fails in the Senate 'Regardless of how Mike Lee polishes his public lands sell off proposal, it's still a piece of shit,' says Tawney. 'Not a square inch of our public lands should be used to pay off tax breaks for billionaires.'
CBS News
34 minutes ago
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Senate holds marathon vote series on Trump's "big, beautiful bill" as GOP eyes July 4 deadline
Washington — A marathon vote series is underway in the Senate after the chamber debated President Trump's massive tax bill into the wee hours of the morning as Republicans work to pass the centerpiece legislation of Mr. Trump's second-term agenda. The House narrowly passed the bill last month, and Senate Republicans have been working to put their mark on the legislation, treading carefully so as not to throw off the delicate balance in the lower chamber. The House will need to approve the Senate's changes to the bill before it can head to the president's desk for his signature. And lawmakers are trying to move quickly, with a self-imposed July 4 deadline to get the measure signed. The Senate worked through the weekend as the GOP nears a final sprint on the legislation ahead of the deadline. Titled "One Big, Beautiful Bill," the legislation includes increased spending for border security, defense and energy production, which is offset in part by cuts to healthcare and nutrition programs. The Congressional Budget Office estimated Sunday that the legislation would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the next decade. Senate Republicans advanced the legislation late Saturday, with all but two voting in favor following hours of delay as the GOP worked to iron out last-minute details and dispel concern among holdouts. The vote on the motion to proceed stayed open for more than three hours as holdouts sought assurances from GOP leaders. Some tweaks were made to the bill before Republicans ultimately received enough votes to move forward. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) walks in Capitol Hill, as Republican lawmakers struggle to pass President Donald Trump's sweeping spending and tax bill, in Washington, D.C., June 30, 2025. Elizabeth Frantz / REUTERS Senate Democrats further delayed the legislation's path forward by forcing the bill to be read in its entirety, starting late Saturday. After nearly 16 hours, the Senate clerks concluded their reading of the bill on the floor, starting the clock on debate. Each side then had up to 10 hours for debate. The "vote-a-rama" Following debate, and a break until the morning, the Senate began what's known as a "vote-a-rama" Monday in which senators may offer an unlimited number of amendments and force the chamber to cast vote after vote. Democrats have been using the opportunity to put their GOP colleagues on the record on a number of controversial issues ahead of the midterm elections. But before the chamber could get to the amendment votes, senators had to address an outstanding disagreement over the current policy baseline, an accounting approach that would make it appear that extending the current tax policy would cost nothing. Senate Majority Leader John Thune maneuvered Sunday to allow the use of the current policy baseline, before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer quickly appealed the move, requesting a vote as Democrats railed against it as the "nuclear option." The chamber voted 53-47, along party lines, to affirm the use of the current policy baseline on Monday. Schumer said that Democrats would bring "one amendment after the other" Monday, and began the process by offering an amendment to send the bill back to the Finance Committee to revisit some of its health care provisions. The chamber voted down the amendment in a party-line vote. Democrats proposed a number of amendments to attempt to roll back some of the bill's more controversial provisions. Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, proposed an amendment to remove the bill's provisions that he said would force rural hospitals to limit their services or close their doors. And Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, proposed an amendment to eliminate what he called "red tape" around Medicaid eligibility. Other amendments proposed by Democrats concerned cuts to food assistance and state provider taxes, among a number of related issues. The amendments fell short. GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas offered the first Republican-led amendment, which would have reduced federal Medicaid expansion payments to states that provide coverage to undocumented immigrants charged with specific crimes. The Senate's rulemaker, known as the parliamentarian, determined that the provision would require a 60-vote threshold. The amendment fell short, though it picked up support from a handful of Democrats. Amid the slew of votes, anticipation swirled around a consequential amendment expected to be put forward by GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida later Monday. The amendment would significantly reduce the federal Medicaid expansion match made under the Affordable Care Act, barring new enrollees after 2030, in a move that would make the bill more palatable to some fiscal hawks. Thune has backed the amendment, calling it "great policy," and forecasted that it will get significant support among the Senate GOP. But whether it has enough support to be added to the bill remains to be seen. The chamber's pace began to slow Monday evening. As the amendment votes dragged on, Democrats accused Republicans of stalling. "They're delaying, they're stalling, they're cutting a lot of back-room deals," Schumer told reporters. "But we're just pushing forward, amendment after amendment — they don't like these amendments." Asked by reporters about the holdup Monday night, Thune said, "we're just kind of figuring out what everybody has to have in terms of votes." He added that Senate GOP leaders are working to construct a list, and expressed confidence that the chamber could still vote on final passage overnight. The path to passage Senate Republicans have been pursuing the legislation through the budget reconciliation process, which enables the party in the majority to move ahead without support from across the aisle. With only a simple majority required to advance the measure, rather than the 60-votes needed to move forward with most legislation, Senate Democrats have few mechanisms to combat the bill's progress. With a 53-seat majority, Senate GOP leaders can only afford to lose support from three Republicans — and would then still require a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance. And although a number of senators who had expressed opposition to the measure ultimately decided to advance it Saturday, how they will vote on the measure in a final form remains unclear. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina were the two Republicans to oppose the bill's advancement Saturday, and are expected to oppose the legislation on final passage. Tillis, who announced Sunday that he is not seeking reelection, took to the Senate floor that night to outline his opposition to some of the bill's cuts to Medicaid, claiming "Republicans are about to make a mistake on health care" and arguing that the GOP is "betraying our promise." "It is inescapable that this bill in its current form will betray the very promise that Donald J. Trump made" to target only waste, fraud and abuse in the entitlement program, Tillis said, claiming that the president has been "misinformed" The North Carolina Republican argued that the July 4 deadline is an "artificial" one, saying Senate Republicans are rushing, while encouraging the chamber to "take the time to get this right" and align more closely with the House's Medicaid provisions. But Senate GOP leaders are still moving ahead. Thune, a South Dakota Republican, delivered a defense of the bill on the Senate floor ahead of the vote-a-rama Monday, pushing back on criticism over Medicaid cuts, the impact on the deficit and the use of the current policy baseline. "Let's vote," Thune said. "This is good for America." When asked whether he's confident Senate Republicans have the votes to pass the legislation, the majority leader told reporters, "Never, until we vote." Vance was on hand to break a possible tie vote Saturday, though his vote ultimately wasn't needed. Still, the vice president met with GOP holdouts in the majority leader's office Saturday as the White House put pressure on lawmakers to get the bill across the finish line. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that the president has "been in touch with lawmakers all weekend long to get this bill passed." "The White House and the president are adamant that this bill is passed and that this bill makes its way to his desk," Leavitt said. "Republicans need to stay tough and unified during the home stretch, and we are counting on them to get the job done." Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, warned Sunday that the legislation would be a "political albatross" for Republicans, while suggesting that the bill could even lose support among the GOP, saying "it's not over until it's over." "I think many of my Republican friends know they're walking the plank on this, and we'll see if those who've expressed quiet consternation will actually have the courage of their conviction," Warner said Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." and contributed to this report.
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38 minutes ago
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As stocks notch records, sentiment lags behind, but 'Fed put' to support bulls
-- Stocks are reaching for the skies, clinching fresh records even as a key gauge of investor sentiment lags behind, with recession worries still simmering beneath the surface. But Yarndeni Research says the bull run is far from over, as the 'Fed put' is back in play and should cushion any fallout from tariff-driven hits to growth. 'Despite the latest record highs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, the Investor Intelligence and AAII Bull-Bear Ratios remain relatively low… This suggests that stock investors remain wary. It's as though they're chanting Roseannadanna's mantra: '[I]t's always something—if it's not one thing, it's another,'' Yarndeni Research said in a recent note. Investors have found fresh relief as the Israel-Iran conflict cooled and optimism builds for a resolution to Trump's trade war, even as talks with Canada hit a snag. Offsetting that setback, the U.S. and China resolved a rare earths dispute, and new trade agreements are reportedly in the pipeline. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed at record highs on Friday, with the S&P 500 up 5% year-to-date. Yet, under the surface, sentiment remains cautious. The Investor Intelligence and AAII Bull-Bear Ratios are still subdued, reflecting persistent recession fears and a string of weaker-than-expected economic indicators. The Citigroup (NYSE:C) Economic Surprise Index has stayed in negative territory, and Q1 GDP was revised down to -0.5%. Personal income and spending both dipped in May, while unemployment claims remain low but continuing claims are creeping higher—a sign it's taking longer for the jobless to find work. Still, Yarndeni's take is that these are signs of a 'soft patch,' not a full-blown slowdown. Four of the five best-performing S&P 500 sectors so far this year are cyclical—Industrials, Communication Services, Financials, and Information Technology—underscoring long-term optimism around tech capex, onshoring, and capital markets. The report expects consumer spending to rebound as stock prices hit new highs and tariff turmoil moderates. Yarndeni argues, however, that the 'Fed put' is back: if the economy stumbles, the Federal Reserve is likely to cut rates twice before year-end. Even if the base case is for resilience without Fed help, the futures market is already pricing in two cuts over the next six months and four in the next year. That safety net, Yarndeni says, should keep the bull market intact—even if growth wobbles. Related articles As stocks notch records, sentiment lags behind, but 'Fed put' to support bulls Circle applies for U.S. trust bank license after successful IPO Elon Musk criticizes spending bill, calls for new political party Sign in to access your portfolio
