Two unusual policy moves helped shape US economic and credit market performance during the third quarter:
- On September 18, the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced it would not make changes to its Quantitative Easing (QE) program.
- On September 30, Congress failed to reach an agreement on the fiscal year 2014 budget, partially closing down the Federal government for the next 16 days.
Consumer confidence reflected the immediate impact of increased policy uncertainty;
Decreased government spending suppressed economic potential early in 2013. Relative to recent growth, it is unlikely that the partial government shutdown will cause much of an additional drag;
Despite higher long-term interest rates, commercial real estate transactions are approaching pre-recession levels and cap rates for institutional-quality assets did not increase.
Source : UBS AG