STOCKS RALLY AS THE SHUTDOWN BEGINS: Here's What You Need To Know

First, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 15,159.6, +29.5, +0.2%
• S&P 500: 1,690.8, +9.3, +0.5%
• NASDAQ: 3,808.1, +36.6, +0.9%

And now the top stories:

• Congress failed to agree on a budget deal or continuing resolution. So, the government went on partial shutdown effective midnight.
• "Dysfunction is not new, in that this marks the seventeenth shutdown in the past forty years," wrote Morgan Stanley's Vincent Reinhart. "About 800,000 government workers will stay home, as federal employees who cannot be paid should not work." Reinhart estimated that each week of the shutdown would shave 15 basis points off of real GDP growth.
• "Most data releases to be delayed, including the employment situation for September that was scheduled to be out on Friday, October 4," added Reinhart. "The quality of some official data to degrade as the shutdown lengthens because workers will not be in the field to collect the raw information." This is all worrisome for the Federal Reserve who relies on this data as it decides on the direction of monetary policy.
• For now, the privately published data will have to do. And today, several data producing organizations delivered.
• Notably, the closely followed ISM manufacturing index unexpectedly climbed to 56.2 from 55.7 in August. Economists were looking for a reading of 55.0. This suggests American manufacturing activity is accelerating.
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