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CNBC issued a statement saying it's "still planning a big show on Friday" focused on the uncertainty from the shutdown and the "incomplete picture on where the jobs market currently stands." Friday's report was expected to show that the economy added 180,000 jobs in September, slightly more than the modest 169,000 in August. The unemployment rate was expected to remain at a still-high 7.3 percent. Without the jobs data, it isn't only Wall Street that will have to act without its usual information. The Federal Reserve will almost surely put off any move to slow its bond purchases when it meets later this month. The purchases have been designed to keep long-term borrowing rates low. A resolution of the shutdown would allow the government to eventually release the September jobs report. But Naroff is already worried about the October jobs report, set for release in early November. A prolonged shutdown would bar the government from doing the necessary surveys on hiring and employment. "Do they do it a week late?" Naroff says. "Do they just not do it? I don't know." Zandi says he'll grow alarmed only if a prolonged shutdown shuts off the flow of economic data for weeks. No one would know precisely how the economy is reacting to Washington's political standoff. "It's like flying a plane with few instruments." Zandi says. "You're able to do it for a while. But if you hit a storm, there's a good chance you'll crash." Still, important as the jobs report is, some find its coverage on cable TV to be overkill. Barry Ritholtz, chief investment officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management, calls it "the single most overanalyzed, overwrought, overemphasized data point in finance." Ritholtz notes that each month's job figure is later revised twice, sometimes sharply. "It's only a function of financial television and radio that have time to fill." Regardless, Zandi plans to be exactly where he is on every other first Friday of the month: speaking on a panel of experts on CNBC. "There's always something to talk about," he says.
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