Surging virus cases and politics dominate the agenda
A glance at the economic calendar and it looks like a ho-hum day on the surface. The Dallas & Chicago Fed surveys are not market movers and new home sales is barely one rung higher.
But it's not a normal time. We're now 8 days from the US election and politics is at an absolute fever pitch. If either campaign has any kind of 'October surprise' left, it's time to spring it.
In Congress, Amy Comey Barrett will be confirmed to the Supreme Court today and stimulus talks continue. I think the market must have concluded by now that no deal is coming and is also highly unlikely in the lame duck session.
The big story though is the resurgence of the virus to records in much of the US and Europe. The hardest-hit place in the US in the past week is Sheboygan, Wisconsin where one-in-100 residents got the virus in the past week. I don't care what the government says, that's effectively a shutdown
