Spreadex Market Update

Economists and investors scrutinise US budget debate.



With Republicans and Democrats failing to make concessions over the weekend, the budget debate has been the subject of intense scrutiny by economists and investors alike. With Senate convening at 19:00 BST, U.S lawmakers will have until mid-night local time to approve emergency legislation to keep the federal government operating from tomorrow, the beginning of the 2014 fiscal year. Whilst essential operations would continue, some 800,000 government jobs are at risk of being placed on temporary unpaid leave.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress say they don’t want to close the government, though neither side is budging from their positions to avoid it. House Republicans want to delay President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act for a year and make other changes to the health law. Democrats vow not to let that happen.

U.S stock-index futures have consequently slid with the S&P 500 down 15.5 points by 13:00 GMT, however, the index is still trading 3.6 percent higher this month, extending its quarterly gain to 5.3 percent after the Federal Reserve decided against reducing its $85 billion of bond-buying a month. The general consensus amongst economists surveyed is that the Fed will indeed taper bond-buying to some degree in December.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 has been led lower by a combination of political unrest in Italy and further worrying data from China. Mining shares have weighed on the headline index after data from China unexpectedly showed near stagnation of private sector factory activity in September. The mining sector is the index's third-biggest and the only one that is down this year. Whilst The sudden departure of five Italian centre-right ministers over the weekend left the government only formally in place, rattling markets and raising the possibility of new elections.

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