Economic data from the U.S. government remained on hold, while private sources showed housing prices flattening, and continued challenged consumer sentiment.

At the October meeting, the U.S. Federal Reserve Open Market Committee voted to reduce the Fed funds rate for the second time in a row, by another -0.25%, to a new range of 3.75-4.00%.

Economic data remained sparce as the federal government shutdown continued, with the exception of CPI inflation, which remained high, but somewhat cooler than expected.

Economic data remained sparce with the U.S. government shutdown continuing beyond its second week.

Although the U.S. government shutdown continued through last week, it was a period with little economic data scheduled to be released anyway, so there wasn’t much to be missed.

Economic data included an improvement in the ISM manufacturing report, although it stayed in contraction, while ISM services fell to neutral.