New York Report: Markets stay calm despite US shutdown
US stocks kicked off a new month and a new quarter with gains yesterday as investors, for now, appeared confident that the first partial government shutdown in nearly two decades would be short lived.
After declining seven out of the past eight sessions on concerns about a possible shutdown, Wall Street rebounded as investors viewed the pullback as a buying opportunity in the absence of an extended shutdown.
The Dow edged up by 62.03 points, to 15,191.70, the S&P 500 rose by 13.45 points to 1,695, and the Nasdaq climbed to 3,817.98, up by 46.5.
Congress missed a midnight deadline for a bill on Monday, resulting in the shutdown. A fight over President Barack Obama’s healthcare law was at the center of the impasse.
The Democrat-led US Senate yesterday voted to kill Republicans’ latest attempts to modify an emergency government funding bill, stripping proposed amendments from the spending bill and sending back to the house a clean bill that would fund government agencies until mid-November,
“The markets have been so blissfully unconcerned that this hasn’t been a problem. It could start to bite now, of course. But for me, the main story is the number of people not receiving paychecks or producing output,” said Eric Lascelles, of RBC Global Asset Management.
Investors will eye the tone of negotiations as a template for the upcoming debate on lifting the debt ceiling in mid-October, which could cause a default on US debt if not passed.