The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that the policy turmoil flowing endlessly out of Washington has been loud and overwhelming, but it has done little to spoil a rollicking bull market in stocks -- so when the U.S. government shut down on Wednesday over a federal spending deadlock, financial markets shrugged. The Globe's Tim Shufelt writes that the S&P 500, along with other major American indexes and the Toronto Stock Exchange, finished the day up by less than a percentage point. History strongly suggests this is the appropriate reaction. These episodes are almost always short-lived and inconsequential to stock returns. But the timing of this one is not great. The stock market is sizzling even as the real economy is at risk of tipping into recession. That disconnect seems to grow wider by the day. Investors have become hyperattuned to economic indicators, and this is no time to be flying blind. But that is the reality with this shutdown, which puts the collection and release of most government economic data on hold. Mr. Shufelt says chances are this shutdown, like shutdowns past, will not amount to much for financial markets, but it leaves investors in the dark about the economy at a tricky moment.