On Monday, world stocks and U.S. bond markets neglected the government shutdown in Washington, although the dollar hoovered near three-year lows as the euro continued this year’s rally.
Although U.S. Treasury yields typically have fallen during previous government shutdowns, they gained as investors saw limited economic fallout from the political standoff and concentrated on the global economy and U.S. inflation pressures.
After a rocky start, European shares were positive in mid-morning trading as markets concentrated on mergers and acquisitions as well as the forthcoming corporate earnings reports.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.1 percent. Germany’s DAX traded flat, France’s CAC-40 increased 0.1 percent and the UK’s FTSE was unchanged. The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, increased marginally.
U.S. stock futures were minimally down following Friday’s record highs on Wall, but investors were optimistic that the disagreement between President Donald Trump and Democrats would be resolved without a drawn-out shutdown.
“We’re not worried as we have been here before. Perhaps this is more fractious and may take longer to resolve, but it shouldn’t have a massive economic impact,” said Patrick O‘Donnell, investment manager.
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A proposal set forth by a group of senators to extend government funding to Feb. 8 and work on resolving an immigration disagreement has eased concerns that the deadlock would become more serious. A vote in the Senate will be held at 12 p.m. on Monday.
An indication that the market was undisturbed by the dispute in Washington was the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield almost hit its highest level in over three years on Monday, an extension of September’s sell-off in U.S. bonds.
The dollar still hovered around three-year lows, extending this year’s powerless start.
The euro gained 0.2 percent at $1.22435, even though volatility in the euro-dollar exchange rate was more subdued than expected due to previous experience from U.S. government shutdowns.
“Unless the U.S. government shutdown ends very quickly, which may boost the dollar, markets are focusing on the two other cross-currents this week, namely the BOJ and the ECB, with the latter likely to surprise euro bulls,” said Alvin Tan, a currency strategist.