Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Economic Journal - Wednesday, 10/2/2013

(as of 7:30 PST)
 
Power hungry members of Congress are relishing their might while casting aside the better interests of the nation as the US Government continues into its second day of partial shutdown.  The ho-mum reaction of the markets yesterday is in sharp comparison to today’s reality check.  The Dow is down triple digits and other indexes are following.  It still feels as if reactions are somewhat muted in that the volatility is still in line with normal market activity.  Employment data came in very soft this morning and a prior period’s data was revised downward.  International economies appear to be on the rebound, but their markets are also taking cues from the mess in Washington, DC.  Gold is on the rebound after a sharp selloff yesterday.  Oil is up a small amount after a week of declines.  Interest rates have drifted downward over the last few days as ‘taper talk’ is off the table at this point.  One gets the feeling that key Republican players in the House of Representatives have made their point and that negotiations will now pickup and that a short term fix will follow in short order.  

No comments: