By Evelina M. Tainer, Chief Economist, Econoday
August 22, 2003

The week of August 11 generated a bit of excitement, but surprisingly it was not caused by the Federal Reserve meeting on August 12. The electrical power grid east of the Mississippi blacked out 50 million people in nine states and some Canadians as well (primarily Toronto, Canada's largest city). Luckily, the blackout took place a few minutes after 4 PM and financial markets were already closed for the day. Business activity on Friday was diminished, although much of the power had returned to major cities in the Northeast.

Everything was pretty much back to normal by the beginning of the new week, with only minor exceptions. Financial market players mostly saw the blackout as a blip on the landscape, although energy companies saw share prices rise - or fall - depending on which side of the power outage they were on.