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Finally! Looks like our federal government's leaders have all but put things back into motion by striking a budget deal this afternoon. Stocks jumped, of course, but like we warned you a few days ago this could be a quintessential "buy the rumor, sell the news" situation. Would the S&P 500 be trading around 1720 now had the budget been approved a couple of weeks ago (and none of this fiasco would have materialized)? Maybe, or maybe not. We'll know for sure in just a few days, because given enough time, the market's still ultimately going to reflect earnings rather than confidence in our political system. This shutdown business will be nothing but a memory soon.

The ironic part is, the market's recent technical movement has set up a perfect opportunity to kick-start the "sell the news" effort.

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We hope you all had a good Tuesday. Still no official word from Washington, though we've heard from both parties that a resolution could be finalized by Wednesday. Nothing like waiting until the very last minute, huh?

I'm not surprised, and I doubt any of you are either. This was never really about the budget or the debt-ceiling. This was always about both parties trying to cast each other in an ugly light, which meant the process had to be prolonged as much as possible. Sadly, both sides of the aisle succeeded - both parties now look ridiculous. Worse (and as a result of the brinksmanship), the buzz is that credit rating agencies could downgrade the government's debt this evening anyway, even with time left on the clock; looks like even the bond-rating companies think this has gotten out of control, and destructive.

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Well, another good day for the market, spurred by hope that this ridiculous government shutdown will come to a close soon. We can't say we don't understand the thought process - an end to the stalemate will unleash some dollars that are currently trapped by the freeze, and it will put thousands of furloughed employees back to work. That, in turn, will rev the nation's economic engine. When it's all said and done though, stocks are ultimately going to reflect earnings, not political progress. Just keep the short-term and the long-term forces in their proper perspective, because they're not one and the same right now.

Anyway, though stocks ended Friday well in the black, all the indices remain trapped below bigger technical ceilings ... ceilings which we've discussed at least a couple of times already, so no need to hash 'em out again. We're just waiting on the market as well as the government to rock its way out this lull.

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Clearly the market heard what it wanted to hear today regarding the government's budget and debt-ceiling debates. There's not been any actual progress, mind you, but the tone has changed to one where at least both parties can discuss why they aren't interested in discussing anything. It's a start. The GOP and President Obama are supposed to meet on Friday to talk about extending the debt-ceiling deadline. Just remember a discussion isn't the same as a deal.

Now, there's a good chance today's bounce was going to happen anyway, with or without what looks like sanity being restored in Washington DC. Every little bit helps though, you know?

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Happy hump-day, everybody. Welcome to day two of earnings season, and day nine of the government (partial) shutdown. There's still no evident progress on the government's budget impasse, though we're starting to get the sense that both parties are now a little fatigued by the whole thing too. They've only got a week and a day left until D-Day -- Default Day -- though, so at this point I can see this standoff lasting all the way through the 11th hour.

As for earnings, so far ... well, not so good. Alcoa (AA) ended up beating estimates of $0.05 per share with a profit of $0.11. That trounced the year-ago figure of $0.03. Family Dollar (FDO) did pretty well too, bringing home $0.86 per share, topping estimates of $084, and beating last year's $0.75. But, Yum! Brands (YUM), Costco (COST), and Fastenal (FAST) all missed estimates, and didn't exactly grow in a big way compared to the year-ago bottom line. All in all we'd categorize Q3 earnings season as a disappointment so far, though it's way too soon to be jumping to any conclusions. We've got a few more biggies in the lineup for the rest of the week, but even then the sample size won't be big enough to call the third quarter a success or a failure.