According to MarketWatch, it was easy for the economy to weather the government shutdown last week, but gridlock in Congress may be harder to digest this week, as investors look ahead to the start of earnings season. MarketWatch notes that:
Meanwhile, if the shutdown drags on, it will threaten to steal the thunder from the start of earnings season, which begins in earnest on Friday with results from Dow Jones component J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.
Analysts have slashed their earnings forecasts for J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. over the past month, largely on expectations the banks’ post-crisis earnings boom is coming to an end as a sluggish recovery lumbers along.
