WASHINGTON — President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday signed legislation ending the longest government shutdown in US history, hours after the House of Representatives voted to restart disrupted food assistance, pay hun-dreds of thousands of federal workers and revive a hobbled air-traffic control system.

The Republican-controlled chamber passed the package by a vote of 222-209, with Mr. Trump’s support largely keeping his party together in the face of vehement opposition from House Democrats, who are angry that a long standoff launched by their Senate colleagues failed to secure a deal to extend federal health insurance subsidies.

Mr. Trump’s signature on the bill, which cleared the Senate earlier in the week, will bring federal workers idled by the 43-day shutdown back to their jobs starting as early as Thursday, although just how quickly full government services and opera-tions will resume is unclear.

“We can never let this happen again,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office during a late-night signing ceremony that he used to criticize Democrats. “This is no way to run a country.”

The deal extends funding through Jan. 30, leaving the federal government on a path to keep adding about $1.8 trillion a year to its $38 trillion in debt.

“I feel like I just lived a Seinfeld episode. We just spent 40 days and I still don’t know what the plotline was,” said Republican Representative David Schweikert of Arizona, likening Congress’ handling of the shutdown to the misad-ventures in a popular 1990s US sitcom.

“I really thought this would be like 48 hours: people will have their piece, they’ll get a moment to have a temper tantrum, and we’ll get back to work.”

He added: “What’s happened now when rage is policy?”

The shutdown’s end offers some hope that services crucial to air travel in particular would have some time to recover with the critical Thanksgiving holiday travel wave just two weeks away. Restoration of food aid to millions of families may also make room for household budgets for spending as the Christmas shopping season moves into high gear.

It also means the restoration in coming days of the flow of data on the US economy from key statistical agencies. The absence of data had left investors, policymakers and households largely in the dark about the health of the job market, the trajectory of inflation, and the pace of consumer spending and economic growth overall.

Some data gaps are likely to be permanent, however, with the White House saying employment and consumer price index reports covering the month of October might never be released.

By many economists’ estimates, the shutdown was shaving more than a tenth of a percentage point from gross domestic product over each of the roughly six weeks of the outage, although most of that lost output is expected to be recouped in the months ahead.

NO PROMISES ON HEALTHCARE
The vote came eight days after Democrats won several high-profile elections that many in the party thought strengthened their odds of winning an extension of health insurance subsidies, which are due to expire at the end of the year.

While the deal sets up a December vote on those subsidies in the Senate, Speaker Mike Johnson has made no such promise in the House.

Democratic Representative Mikie Sherrill, who last week was elected as New Jersey’s next governor, spoke against the funding bill in her last speech on the US House floor before she resigns from Congress next week, encourag-ing her colleagues to stand up to Trump’s administration.

“To my colleagues: Do not let this body become a ceremonial red stamp from an administration that takes food away from children and rips away healthcare,” Ms. Sherrill said.

“To the country: Stand strong. As we say in the Navy, don’t give up the ship.”

NO CLEAR WINNER FROM SHUTDOWN
Despite the recriminations, neither party appears to have won a clear victory. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday found that 50% of Americans blamed Republicans for the shutdown, while 47% blamed Democrats.

The vote came on the Republican-controlled House’s first day in session since mid-September, a long recess intended to put pressure on Democrats. The chamber’s return also set the clock ticking on a vote to release all unclassi-fied records related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, something Mr. Johnson and Mr. Trump have resisted up to now.

Mr. Johnson on Wednesday swore in Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who won a September special election to fill the Arizona seat of her late father, Raul Grijalva. She provided the final signature needed for a petition to force a House vote on the issue, hours after House Democrats released a new batch of Epstein documents.

That means that, after performing its constitutionally mandated duty of keeping the government funded, the House could once again be consumed by a probe into Mr. Trump’s former friend whose life and 2019 death in prison have spawned countless conspiracy theories.

The funding package would allow eight Republican senators to seek hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for alleged privacy violations stemming from the federal investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Mr. Trump’s supporters.

It retroactively makes it illegal in most cases to obtain a senator’s phone data without disclosure and allows those whose records were obtained to sue the Justice Department for $500,000 in damages, along with attorneys’ fees and other costs. — Reuters

PARIS — A surge in luxury stocks has piled pressure on fashion houses including LVMH and Gucci owner Kering to show that signs of recovery in the third quarter can translate into a sustained turnaround in the key holiday season.

Kering’s shares have soared around 49% from three months ago, while Louis Vuitton owner LVMH is up 42%, Moncler up 28%, and Cartier owner Richemont up 27%.

Although some of that is linked to a broader equity market rally, there are also growing hopes among investors that the $400-billion sector is emerging from two years of sliding sales.

Third-quarter results showed some improvement in China — once the key engine of growth — and buzzy design debuts from newly appointed creative directors have buoyed sentiment too.

RISKS FOR THE FOURTH QUARTER
But new styles will not hit the shops until next year and the jury remains out on China’s economic recovery. Spending in another key market — the United States — also remains closely linked to a volatile stock market.

All of that raises the stakes for the December holiday season, which accounts for as much as 30% of annual sales for some brands, according to Vincent Redrado, founder of luxury industry consultancy Digital Native Group.

“I think there’s a risk for the fourth quarter,” said Olivier Abtan, a partner specialized in consumer and retail at consulting firm AlixPartners. “China remains pretty quiet, without a positive evolution — while the United States had a post-election bump last year,” making comparisons tougher.

The prolonged downturn in China has hurt brands with high exposure there, such as Burberry and Gucci, prompting broad overhauls and chief executive officer (CEO) replacements.

Although Louis Vuitton’s Chinese sales turned positive in the third quarter, economic conditions remain challenged, LVMH finance chief Cecile Cabanis told investors in October.

HIGH-END BRANDS FOCUS ON AMERICA
With brands more confident about future US growth, many are expanding there.

Hermes recently opened stores in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Nashville, Tennessee, and is planning more.

LVMH’s Dior inaugurated its first US spa on New York’s Madison Avenue this summer, while Louis Vuitton’s Fifth Avenue flagship has been closed for an extensive refurbishment, with a lavish temporary store opened nearby.

Luxury Parisian department store Printemps, which this year expanded to the US with an upscale outpost in New York, has seen brisk business in Paris, thanks in part to US tourists.

“We’ve had double-digit growth rates since the summer” with some international shoppers, notably from the US and Gulf countries, said Laetitia Henry, CEO of Printemps Haussmann.

“The American clientele has strong buying power.”

But the latest US credit card data from Citi shows that spending on luxury brands fell 3% year on year in October, marking a retreat after three months of improvement, as a government shutdown contributed to consumer jit-ters.

Among industry heavyweights, LVMH, Zegna, Kering and Richemont are most reliant on the US market, while Burberry, Hermes, Moncler and Prada are less exposed, analysts say.

NEW COLLECTIONS OFFER HOPE
Luxury houses are also banking on new creative direction to bring back shoppers turned off by high prices.

Gucci, which has underperformed rivals in recent years, has tested styles from new creative director Demna at some stores even ahead of the designer’s first runway show expected in February.

The strategy seems to be helping, with year-on-year spending at Gucci in the three months to early October showing its best performance versus peers since early 2022, according to Consumer Edge, which analyzes US consumer credit and debit card data.

“There was a pretty meaningful sequential improvement,” said the consultancy’s Michael Gunther.

Louis Vuitton, meanwhile, created a buzz at the end of August by launching new refillable makeup products including lipstick priced at $160 — much higher than Hermes or Chanel, which charge just over $80 and $50, respec-tively.

“It doesn’t really matter that it’s the most expensive lipstick on the planet,” said HSBC analyst Erwan Rambourg.

“What matters is it will bring people in. If you get sticker shock, then it’ll be the sales associate’s job to tell you, ‘okay, you don’t have any interest in the lipstick. Why don’t you look at these sneakers or small leather goods?’ or whatever.” — Reuters