14 Things You Don't Know Because of the Government Shutdown

The federal government has now been shut down for two weeks.

Despite the impact it's having on countless thousands of federal employees, lawmakers in Washington -- namely, those in the House of Representatives -- are persisting in their self-interested and sophomoric game of brinksmanship, playing chicken with America's economic credibility.

Perhaps the most surprising thing in all of this has been the resilience of the financial markets. For its part, the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.22%) finished last week above the 1,700-point threshold for only the second time in history.

But for investors, arguably the most disturbing aspect of this whole ordeal is the stanching of information flow. Since the onset of the shutdown, there have been 14 critical economic reports that should have been published but haven't.

We still don't know, for example, what the unemployment rate for September was. Nor do we know how retail sales are faring. Nor are we aware of the updated trend in consumer or producer prices.

The point being, when the shutdown does officially end, there's going to be a considerable amount of data for analysts and investors to ingest in an abnormally compressed amount of time.

With this in mind, I've gathered up a list of the most important economic releases that have been delayed as a result of the shutdown:

Source: Marketwatch.com.

What will happen when the government opens back up and this information starts flowing out? That's anybody's guess. However, one way to ensure that it doesn't hurt your portfolio is to invest in companies that are positioned to soar in the future.

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