Back to normal–and the market gets earnings news to worry about

Back to normal. The United States won’t default. The federal government is open again—including the Panda cam at the National Zoo. And once again earnings count. Which at least for the day isn’t good news for U.S. stocks—at least not for the Dow Jones Industrials. I think we’re seeing three themes that are likely to be major drivers of the U.S. market as we move through the meat of earnings season

It’s a deal

The important news this morning is that there is a deal to end the government shutdown and to raise the debt ceiling. The bill has some procedural hurdles to jump. I wouldn’t be surprised if Congress misses the Treasury’s October 17 deadline by a day or two, but that isn’t likely to strike the markets as a big deal

Markets, somehow, hold fast in face of House chaos

Republican leadership in the House of Representatives has one more chance to tank global financial markets. And they seem to be determined to make the most of it. After emphatically rejecting the Senate plan put together on the basis of Republican Senator Susan Collins’ (Maine) proposal, this morning the Republican leadership pulled its own plan apparently because of intense opposition from Tea Party Republicans.