BALDWIN: All right, all this uncertainty looming over Washington, you can see not surprisingly affecting the markets on Wall Street. Let's go straight to Zain Asher with a look, as we are minutes away from the closing bell. Not exactly in positive territory at the moment.</s>ZAIN ASHER, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, exactly. We're down about 135 points. You know, this is really more about uncertainty than anything else, Brooke. The market is used to stalemates in Washington. And, by the way, if the government actually does shut down for one week, it will only have a limited effect on economic growth. However, the problem is that a shutdown this time around is actually only one piece of the puzzle. We've got the debt ceiling deadline on the horizon which will undeniably have a much bigger impact. If the government defaults on its debt for the very first time in history, we will most likely see a huge tumble in the market. There'd be dramatic cuts in spending and it would put a dent in GDP and business confidence. In terms of a shutdown, this is interesting. When the markets opened this morning, the traders I spoke to were surprisingly optimistic about a deal being reached by midnight tonight. However, one trader just actually stopped by in here a second ago, and I asked him, so are you still optimistic given the back and forth? And he hesitated, so I think that people are slowly starting to get nervous. I think it's going to be very interesting to see what happens when the markets open tomorrow. Brooke?</s>BALDWIN: Zain, thank you. Let's go straight to where you are and just listen in. And the bell, and what will the next few hours bring? We will watch and wait. Stay with us here on CNN. We're all over it. I'm Brooke Baldwin. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.
Shutdown Uncertainty Affects Wall Street