The Bureau of Labor Statistics let us know this morning that they will not be releasing the Consumer Price Index tomorrow as normally scheduled. There’s a gag order in place until the shutdown is resolved. The Index of course tracks inflation at the consumer level and is an important indicator of how the war on price increases is progressing. Without data, it’s difficult to know how best to administer monetary policy in a way that will benefit as many Americans as possible.
That resolution should come by Friday as Congress reconvenes to vote on the new budget and a new debt ceiling. Shouldn’t be too hard; we only need 218 elected officials to find common ground among the thousands of pages of existing and proposed legislation wedged in there to benefit constituents in all 50 states.
Stock market saw the resolution as positive this morning and stocks were negative territory, but the S&P has ventured into the red. MBS are also down 11 BPS. The 10 year treasury is flat at 4.0654%.
