Wall Street rose to records after an update said U.S. households are feeling a bit less pain from inflation than feared. The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% Friday and topped its prior all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1%, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.1%. Both also set records. The inflation data could clear the way for the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates in hopes of helping the slowing job market. A strong earnings report from Ford Motor and continued gains for AI stars also helped to drive stocks higher.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from firing workers during the government shutdown, saying the human cost "cannot be tolerated.” U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco on Wednesday granted a temporary restraining order halting the job cuts, saying she believes evidence would show the cuts were illegal. The White House budget office said Friday that mass firings of federal workers had started. That announcement prompted labor unions for federal employees to ask the judge to block the Republican administration from issuing new layoff notices and implementing those already sent out. The White House referred a request for comment to the Office of Management and Budget. The budget office has yet to respond.

Federal workers furloughed or working without pay are feeling the financial squeeze and fear being swept up in the Trump administration's layoffs. The fate of the federal workers is among several pressure points that could push lawmakers to agree to resolve the stalemate. The shutdown began Oct. 1 after Democrats rejected a short-term funding fix, demanding an extension of health insurance subsidies. The Republican White House has used the workforce as leverage to pressure Democrats. Labor unions have filed lawsuits to stop the layoffs. Frustration among workers is growing as the shutdown drags on. Furloughed federal worker Peter Farruggia says some bills will go unpaid this month.

A new round of layoffs at the Education Department is depleting an agency that was already hit hard in the Trump administration’s previous mass firings, threatening new disruption to the nation’s students and schools. The Trump administration started laying off 466 Education Department staffers on Friday amid mass firings across the government meant to pressure Democratic lawmakers over the federal shutdown. The layoffs would cut the agency’s workforce by nearly a fifth and leave it reduced by more than half its size when President Donald Trump took office. The cuts threaten disruption in areas from special education to civil rights enforcement and after-school programs.

Mass firings of federal workers have begun. That was the announcement Friday from the White House as Republicans worked to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers to end the government shutdown. In a court filing, the budget office said well over 4,000 employees would be fired, though it noted that the funding situation was “fluid and rapidly evolving.” Democrats blasted the move as unions for federal workers quickly took the matter to court. President Donald Trump said of firings, “it'll be a lot,” and he suggested that those losing their jobs would be in areas that were “Democrat oriented.”