October 01, 2013- Stocks Edge Higher Remaining Cautious on US Fiscal Concerns

After having digested the possibility of a government shutdown in recent sessions, the materialization of the risk is unlikely to cause immediate jitters in the markets. Despite the partial government shutdown, early indications suggest that Wall Street stocks may open Tuesday's session higher. Some of the optimism suggested by the index futures may also be due to positive manufacturing activity data for several countries and a strong improvement in Japanese business sentiment. The domestic markets may also stay tuned to the results of separate manufacturing surveys due to be released by Markit and the Institute for Supply Management. The Dow futures are rebounding by 51 points, the S&P 500 futures are moving up 7.10 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures are adding 13 points. Fears of a government shutdown generated negative sentiment on Monday, sending U.S. stocks notably lower despite the release of fairly upbeat manufacturing data. On the economic front, automakers are due to release their monthly sales results for September. Economists expect total vehicle sales to come in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 11.9 million compared to 12.6 million in August.