Morning Fundamental Compass Direction

The activity in Washington overnight wasn't confined to the halls of power where lawmakers contin-ue to try to negotiate a budget position that will end the government shutdown. The U.S Capital building was locked down after shots were fired outside the building. A single female suspect was shot by police and taken to hospital while a child in the woman's car was also taken into custody. At this stage authorities do not believe that there are any links to terrorism. The suspect had attempt-ed to drive through security barriers and the ensuing incident caused both houses of Congress to go into recess.

Speaker of the House John Boehner is engaged in frantic negotiations to avoid a U.S. debt default. Insiders have revealed to various news sources that he will do everything in his power to end the shut down and raise the debt limit even if he must pander to Democrat demands. Some Republicans, however, are still demanding more cuts to spending even though current proposals have had no chance of success. The debt limit will be breached on October while the cash balance will be depleted between October 22 to October 31 according the Congressional Budget Office.

U.S equity markets have recorded their biggest fall this month on investor concerns over a prolonged U.S. government shutdown and worse than expected growth in the services sector even as the latest jobs report showed that fewer than expected Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. The all important Labor Department payrolls report will not be released today due to the shutdown. The S&P 500 has closed the session down 0.9% at 1,678.66 as stocks most closely tied to economic growth recorded the biggest falls. Companies that receive significant revenue from federal contracts have also suffered significant falls. Earlier in Europe, the DAX lost 0.37% while the FTSE managed a gain of 0.18% even as all other European bourses fell.

Commodity prices have eased in response to the weaker than expected U.S. data released overnight. The major indexes have lost 0.25%. WTI crude fell 0.8% to $103.30 on investor concerns about a protracted U.S. government shut down. Precious metals also eased with gold down 0.2% to $1,318 while silver lost 0.95% to $21.70. Copper fell 1.5%. Agricultural commodities firmed with soybeans and ethanol recording the biggest gains.