Stocks Are Way Off Their Lows
Futures have traded sideways for most of the morning, but are now 10 points off the low of 1680 made last night at 7 PM, trading down 0.5% at 1690. Friday, futures closed at 1700.
With no economic data releases today and a thin earnings calendar this morning, fiscal battles in Washington remain squarely in focus, and little progress was made over the weekend.
Gold is up 1.2%, trading at $1283 an ounce.
"It is getting uncomfortably close to Thursday when the debt-ceiling is reached," says Miller Tabak chief economic strategist Andrew Wilkinson. "With the whole world wagging their fingers at lawmakers in Washington over a potentially devastating sequel to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the works, the only thing missing from the script is the appearance of aliens at the White House."
The S&P 500 has risen quickly in the last few days, trading up 3.0% off a government-shutdown low made Wednesday at 1646.
The chart below shows S&P 500 futures.
