Friends
Well, yesterday, traders didn’t seem to take the first day of the government shutdown very serious. Today, with the feeling that this could go on for a while, traders were a little more negative about the whole situation. How can investors be blamed for feeling just plain tired of all of this? Trying to figure out the effect that a government shutdown has on economic growth and eventual stock prices and interest rates is next to impossible in the near term. As we have pointed out, it’s best just to stick to your investment game plan and pretty much ignore all this political noise.
As for today’s trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 58 points to close at 15,133. The S&P 500 was down 1 point to finish the day at 1693. Gold was up $30 to trade at $1316 per ounce, while oil was up $1.80 to trade at $103.92 per barrel WTI. The S&P 500 is comfortably above the 1670 support area, but still shy of the 1700 level, not to mention the recent all-time highs.
Because of the shutdown, we may not get Friday’s employment report, but today’s ADP private sector jobs number was just slightly shy of expectations. Hopefully, somewhere here in October, we can get this shutdown and more importantly the debt ceiling issues resolved. Traders will most likely remain skeptical until a resolution is reached. Earnings season begins next week, so that will hopefully take some of the attention away from politicians. For now, we’ll have to take it day by day.
Have a nice evening everyone.
