US continues to pay costly for government shutdown

The ramifications of the government shutdown continued to affect the US market conditions this week, starting with warnings about the US credit rating to the expectation of a Federal refraining from removing Quantitative easing well into 2014, said a report by National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) Sunday. The report noted that although the week was quiet in terms of economic data, some Federal officials reiterated their concerns over the need of better labor market figures to support economic growth in the country amid the government's partial shutdown. The Euro, meanwhile, continued to be the best performing currency as investors continued to perceive the European crisis as an old nightmare, hence, giving it back its safe haven status. The Euro reached a high of 1.3832 on Friday, to end the week at 1.3802, it said. The report added that although the Bank of England stated that policy makers were unanimous in rejecting higher interest rates, the Pound continued to gain reaching a high of 1.6257 on Thursday to end the week at 1.6165. In the commodity complex, Precious metals had a strong recovery after the US economic data. The weak September US non-farm payroll pushed gold and silver prices 2.0 percent and 2.3 percent higher on the day and up 2.5 percent and 4 percent for the week, respectively, it said. Another supportive factor for the gold market appeared to be a strong physical demand out of China perceived to be the world's largest consumer and importer of gold jewelry this year. Moreover, German business optimism dropped in October more than expectations, in a sign that Europe's fledgling economic recovery is less than robust. The Ifo index slipped to 107.4 points in October from 107.7 the month before. Market expectations were for a modest rise to 108.0. It was the first decline after five months of increases and follows a dip in surveys of activity in the services and manufacturing sectors. On the economic side, the UK economy grew at its fastest pace for three years in the third quarter of the year as GDP increased by 0.8 percent. the number represents the third successive period of improving output and the best performance since the second quarter of 2010. The figures saw a 2.5 percent surge in construction. On a more positive news, China released their Q3 GDP figures in line with expectations at 7.8 percent, driven by firmer foreign and domestic demand which lifted factory production and retail sales.