Is Government Shutdown an Oxymoron?

Yes, we made a government shutdown joke. First, let me be abundantly clear--a government shut down is definitively not good. And that's a very technical term. We can argue over all of the political and economic ramifications of a government shutdown, but above all of that a shutdown is inherently a people problem--aka, it's an incredibly stressful event for the people who work for the government and need paychecks to live.

The federal government writes paychecks to something like four million Americans. If those paychecks stop coming for most, that is, again, not good. Then of course are the numerous knock-on effects that trickle down to the regular citizens--things like potential closures of national parks (or just a lack of services at those parks), potential airport delays as any staffing issue is greatly exacerbated by a shutdown, and of course the droning on in the media about the shutdown. Bullish or bearish is less important when the effects are felt by many people who don't deserve to feel those effects.

Also a great reminder that the last shutdown was basically ended by ten air traffic controllers calling in sick and leading to partial shutdowns of several of the nation's major airports. When it affected big business, the shutdown miraculously ended. So--now the question is--shutdowns, bullish or bearish? Well, the market rallied yesterday on a nothing burger news of the Senate approving a stopgap funding proposal. News that was always expected and inconsequential because the real fight is in the House, where the varied factions of the GOP are currently on opposing sides of the debate. The market of 2023 hates uncertainty, so I think until there's a resolution (either way?) it will continue to add to the mounting downward pressure on the indices. As always, something to keep an eye on and wait for the real news to hit the wires.

Here are the NQ levels for today:

Current Price: 14770

Upside Targets: 14782, 14796, 14820, 14865

Downside Targets: 14740, 14680, 14633, 14608

Stretch Targets: 14920, 14536