I’ve been thinking long and hard (that’s what she said) about what to compare this government shutdown to… and what do you know, I didn’t have to look far (I’m a Titans fan).

Just like this shutdown, the Titans season started off extremely optimistic (some would call it coping).

After Week 1’s loss to the Broncos:
“Man, Cam Ward looked good. Defense played solid. If it weren’t for a few coaching miscues and our receivers forgetting they have hands, we would’ve won.”

After Week 2’s loss:
“This is starting to get a little concerning (and our coach is a moron who doesn’t know his foot from his anus) but it’s still early. I’m sure they’ll figure it out.”

After Week 3’s loss:
“Fire the coach. Fire the GM. Trade every player for a bag of chips. Petition the owner to sell the team to Jeff Bezos.”

Well, just like every Titans fan this season, if today showed us anything, it’s that traders are starting to lose faith in this whole government shutdown situation.

When the shutdown first started, Wall Street couldn’t have cared less. Every talking head on CNBC was chanting the same thing: “Temporary! Congress will fix it!”

And honestly, they had reason to chill… the S&P 500 had racked up eight wins in the last nine sessions, the Nasdaq crossed 23,000 for the first time ever, and everyone was acting like Washington gridlock was just another meme to scroll past. But after today? Yeah, that changed.

The S&P lost 0.4%, the Nasdaq cratered 0.3%, and the Dow (poor, old-man Dow) is DOW-n bad (-0.7%). At their highs, both the S&P and Nasdaq were actually up… until traders remembered that the government is still literally shut down, and the next CPI report that was supposed to drop? Yeah, not happening.

We’re now on day nine of this little political sleepover, and the cracks are spreading fast. Half the IRS has been sent home (not that anyone’s crying), the FAA is delaying flights because it’s short on controllers, and the Labor Department ghosted us on jobless claims data. That means the Fed is flying the plane with a dead altimeter and no visibility. Powell’s got no inflation data, no jobs numbers, no spending reports… just vibes and whatever’s left in his inbox from August.

The September meeting minutes already showed the Fed locker room starting to fracture… half the team wants to run the ball with more cuts to help the job market, while the rest are terrified inflation’s about to blitz again. Now they’re arguing over the next play, and traders are starting to wonder if Powell’s just gonna take a knee. Sure, stocks are still near all-time highs, but it’s starting to feel like everyone’s playing musical chairs… and the music’s slowing down.

David Wagner from Aptus Capital Advisors summed it up perfectly: “This market just continues to grind up.” Translation: nobody wants to sell first and be that guy who ruins the rally.

With that said, there were a few wins in all this chaos…

Delta Air Lines popped 4% after reporting earnings that absolutely smoked expectations… fueled by $5.8 billion in premium seat sales last quarter (because who would’ve thunk it… rich people are recession-proof).

Costco also climbed 2% after posting strong September sales. Because no matter how bad things get in D.C., Americans will always find comfort in a $1.50 hot dog and a 48-pack of muffins.

And PepsiCo quietly kicked off earnings season with a modest profit and revenue beat… 

As for our Stock Prophet Watchlist, it was starting to look like a slow day, and then our YDDL alert delivered a 58% move and we’re keeping an eye on the aftermarket to see what else we can find. So give yourself a high five if you got in on that one and make sure notifications are on for the app. Sometimes these moves happen fast.

If you read all of this, congrats for having a 10 second attention span (better than me). As always, here’s our heatmap for today.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Pepsi as mentioned in the article.