Investors dumped U.S. assets in favor of gold, Bitcoin, and foreign stocks as government shutdown leaves Wall Street ‘flying blind’

S&P 500 futures and the dollar dropped in the middle of the night, while safe-haven assets surged. Analysts warn prolonged shutdown and layoffs could hurt GDP and spur earlier Fed rate cuts, but markets historically fluctuate only modestly during shutdowns.

S&P 500 futures moved sharply down at about 2 a.m. ET this morning after the U.S. federal government went into another shutdown. The key difference for markets this time around—there have been about 20 shutdowns since 1976—is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics won’t be publishing the upcoming jobless claims report or the Consumer Price Index (inflation). This means investors will be in the dark for a while, and explains why S&P futures are down 0.55% prior to the opening bell in New York while markets in Asia and Europe are strongly