So what comes next? Well, earnings season of course. Stocks are still lower going into the big 3-4 weeks of earnings reports but at least they are only 10% lower instead of 20% lower. Maybe still a good setup for those companies who can still crush it at the top and bottom line and give great forward guidance. But are there many of those companies in this current environment? I don’t think so. We will read the reports, listen to the calls and look for any good tidbits to follow up on so that we could add those stocks to our watch lists. The Government shutdown looks like it will last a while longer. The weekend polls shifted toward a Trump/GOP blame, but the numbers also show that a smaller crowd still supporting Trump have become more emboldened about wanting their Wall. This would imply that the main players in this game of tug of war will only dig in deeper. And if the shutdown cannot be solved, don’t expect anything else to get done either in the White House or Congress during the Q1.