US stocks slid on Friday amid worries about Washington’s budget impasse, with a sharp drop in Apple weighing on the Nasdaq.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 34.25 points (0.26 percent) at 13,136.47 in closing trade. The broad-market S&P 500 fell 5.71 points (0.40 percent) to 1,413.74, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite shed 20.83 points (0.70 percent) to 2,971.33.
The possibility of a "fiscal cliff" deal not taking place until early 2013 is rising. The back-and-forth negotiations over the fiscal cliff in Washington have kept markets on hold in what would already be a quiet period for stocks.

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The end-of-term reviews of John Boehner’s House speakership are in, and they aren’t pretty.

“The conduct of the Republican leadership was disgraceful, it was indefensible and it was immoral.”

“There was a betrayal.”

“Disappointing and disgusting.”

“It’s inexcusable.”

“Failed that most basic test of public service.”

And this was coming from the Republicans.

The spark: Boehner’s last-minute decision to let the 112th Congress fade into history without a vote on the $60 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package for the Northeast. In a sense, this was an outrage, because such recovery bills traditionally pass without a fuss. But in another sense, it followed a familiar script: Tea party Republicans balked at taking up the spending bill (it had enough votes to pass), and because the tea party rules the House GOP, Boehner obeyed rather than risk his reelection as speaker on Thursday.

The Sandy sidestep provided a perfect coda for the first two years of this Republican-controlled House, which only by a loose definition can still be called a legislative body.Lawmakers in both parties are congratulating themselves for passing a bill to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” but they did little more than approve a short-term fix that postpones the standoff 60 days. Ominously, even this stopgap measure failed to win the votes of two-thirds of House Republicans, including top Boehner lieutenants Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy, who preferred to risk economic calamity.

The House GOP’s antics on the fiscal cliff leave little optimism that lawmakers will be reasonable when it comes to more substantial issues such as restructuring entitlements, rewriting the tax code and reducing the debt. The fury over the Sandy sidestep could be a sign, though, that even some House Republicans are tiring of the tea party’s dominance of their caucus.

Various Republicans, mostly from the Sandy-soaked Northeast, went to the House floor Wednesday morning to join Democrats in denouncing Boehner’s decision.

First came Rep. Michael Grimm, whose New York district was pummeled by the storm. The GOP leadership’s “error in judgment is going to cost, I think, the trust of the American people,” he said. Offering a “heartfelt apology” to his constituents for the House’s inaction, he warned that “to delay this vote even for another day is something that will resonate . . .with the American people for a long time.”

read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-defined-by-a-sandy-sidestep/2013/01/02/b7b11b10-5532-11e2-bf3e-76c0a789346f_print.html