Stock Market News Today: What Week 2 of a Government Shutdown Looks Like

Stock market news today focuses on market reactions to the second week of the government shutdown, with markets down 80 points with just a couple hours of trading left in the day.

Investors are increasingly concerned that the conflict will not be resolved soon and fear the political stalemate will extend to the debt ceiling issue.

Without a debt ceiling resolution by Oct. 17, the United States would be in default, which would have a more damaging effect on the economy than this shutdown.

As a result, stocks are lower in trading today in all sectors. The S&P 500 is down about 0.4% at 1,683.00 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.6% at 14,989.80 points.

Meanwhile, oil futures are also lower, even as Tropical Storm Karen dissipated into a non-threat over the weekend. Oil futures for November delivery are down about 2% after several oil companies announced that they are gradually restarting operations in the Gulf of Mexico, and the market is refocusing on the shutdown.

Among the major stock market news today, Airbus scored a $9 billion deal from Japan Airlines that has threatened The Boeing Co.'s (NYSE: BA) stronghold in the market. The order, the first time the Japan company connected with Airbus, was for up to 56 wide-body airplanes.

BA is trading down about 0.4% at $116.71 today, still toward the top of a 52-week range of $69.30 to $120.38.

In public offering stock market news today, Twitter's IPO is still garnering attention from investors. Today, SunTrust initiated coverage of Twitter, which will trade under TWTR, at a "Buy" with a $50 price target. Twitter's filing became public last week.

We put together for readers all the Twitter IPO details here.

And in other analyst rating news, both the Facebook stock price (Nasdaq: FB) and Apple stock price (Nasdaq: AAPL) are seeing some movement today on ratings changes.

Facebook shares are down slightly to $50.98 after it was downgraded by analysts at Raymond James to "Outperform" from "Strong Buy." Despite the lower rating, Raymond James has raised its price target on the stock to $56 from $39 a share.

And Apple Inc. was upgraded by analysts at Jefferies to a "Buy" from a "Hold," while the price target on the stock was raised to $600 from $425. AAPL is up 1.7% at $491.68, within a 52-week spread of $385.10 to $666.00.

Healthcare shares are heavy as well this session. Myriad Genetics Inc. (Nasdaq: MYGN) is down about 2% at $24.62 after it said results from a study showed that its myRisk Hereditary Cancer testing system improved detection of mutations in patients genetically predisposed to colon cancer by 60%.

Myriad is presenting this clinical study and data from four other studies this week at the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer Annual Meeting in Anaheim, CA.

And, bucking the trend of declines, Cell Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: CTIC) is up 10% at $1.75 after it reached an agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on a Special Protocol Assessment for the planned pivotal phase 3 clinical trial, known as the PERSIST-2 trial, evaluating pacritinib in patients with myelofibrosis.

Today's Top Story: One 10-Minute Trick That Beat the Market by 248%