Coincidence? Maybe. But Wall Street tends to hate uncertainty.
So this might be about "pricing in" the cost of an extended government shutdown and spending retrenchment, each of which would slow down the economy in 2015.
I know there's a lot more going on now that could be freaking people out -- like Ebola, ISIS, and those creepy clowns in California. But I don't think any of it has as much potential to strip aggregate demand out of the domestic economy as a fresh outbreak of craziness in Washington might have. Those folks inside the beltway have more potential to inflict short-term damage on us than ISIS can even dream about.
So, there's another reason to vote. Won't somebody please think of the IRA and 401(k) balances?