While you were sleeping ... US stocks declined on Friday and the S&P 500 and the Dow posted their first weekly drop in the last four, as lawmakers in Washington continue to tussle over the emergency funding bill. But the reaction thus far by investors has been fairly subdued with no real panic setting in just yet with the S&P 500 up more than 3% for September which has traditionally been described as the worst month for stocks and is just 2% off its all-time high. This could partially be because investors have seen this all before and are still expecting agreements to be reached, even if it comes down to the wire. Time is running out though to avert a partial government shutdown which would begin Tuesday when the new fiscal year begins. Congress is struggling to pass an emergency funding bill as Tea Party-backed Republicans in the House seek to use the must-do bill to gut the new healthcare overhaul (aka Obamacare). However, just before the close, President Obama urged House Republicans to avoid a government shutdown without cuts to the healthcare law or other conditions as he would not agree to them anyway. The Democrat-majority Senate passed a funding bill without attachments on Friday which will now head to the lower house. At the close the Dow had lost 0.46%, the S&P 500 had fallen 0.41% (down 1.1% for the week) and the Nasdaq was down 0.15%.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 23:20:07 +0000
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