How Are Silver Prices Affected By Today’s Government Shutdown?

WASHINGTON (Oct 2)   Around 800,000 federal workers are now furloughed after Washington was held hostage by a portion of the House GOP. Tea partiers, who were elected to office on the promise they would stop Obamacare, have shut the government down in order to try and stop the Affordable Healthcare Act.

The funny thing is today’s government shutdown doesn’t affect Obamacare. Enrollment opened today for millions of people looking for medical insurance.

The military will still get paid thanks to legislation signed by President Obama last night. Paychecks to other federal workers will be withheld until a budget is agreed on. How long will that take? No one knows at this point. It shouldn’t last more than a few days. Then again, it shouldn’t have happened at all.

Congress will have to move quickly to get the government shutdown resolved. In a few short weeks, both sides are going to have to agree on a debt ceiling raise.

With all the dysfunction in Washington, how is Wall Street holding up? Stocks are actually heading slightly higher. I guess investors think the shutdown will be short lived. Commodities weren’t so lucky. Gold and silver are getting hammered this morning.

Silver spot prices are down more than $0.80 this morning at $20.89/oz. Metals are falling as investors believe the shutdown won’t last very long. If the shutdown starts to drag on, look for the metals to pop higher.

Most people thought a shutdown wouldn’t even happen. Seems like investors are riding on hope the shutdown will be resolved in the next day or so. If some in the GOP have their way, it won’t be resolved until Obamacare is defunded.

Now, we wait and see what Washington does. Democrats are showing no signs of caving in and Tea Party Republicans are willing to do whatever it takes to get rid of Obamacare.