Stock market news today focuses on market reactions to the second week of the government shutdown, with markets down 80 points with just a couple hours of trading left in the day.
Investors are increasingly concerned that the conflict will not be resolved soon and fear the political stalemate will extend to the debt ceiling issue.
Without a debt ceiling resolution by Oct. 17, the United States would be in default, which would have a more damaging effect on the economy than this shutdown.
As a result, stocks are lower in trading today in all sectors. The S&P 500 is down about 0.4% at 1,683.00 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.6% at 14,989.80 points.