Should investors be worried by the US shutdown?

Precedents of 1995-96 and 2013

Deadlock in the country's upper legislative chamber meant the US government was effectively shut down last Friday although, notes Rathbones' Ed Smith, the last two times this has happened, markets appear barely to have noticed.

The US government was shut down on Friday night after the Senate failed to agree a deal to fund it. There is set to be another vote later today on a plan to re-open the government, but Democrat Senate leader Chuck Schumer says there is no deal yet. There are, however, reasons to believe investors should not get too panicked. For one thing, it is important to remember financial markets hardly reacted at the last two shutdowns in 1995-96 and 2013. Trump set for largest rise in Dow Jones in first year of a post-war presidency In 1995, with Bill Clinton in the White House, but the Repu...