Next Year Will Get Even Uglier for US Investors

[OhioChick]

Published: Wednesday, 2 Nov 2011 | 12:25 PM ET

Individual investors will be up against political gridlock as the economy grows slowly next year, prospects that may damp stock-market gains even if Congress pushes through a trillion-dollar budget cut.

A "relatively toxic political environment" next year will "get uglier," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, during the Schwab Impact 2011 investment advisor conference in San Francisco late Tuesday. "Maybe it'll get prettier. But the first hurdle is the 'super committee.' "

The so-called super committee is the bipartisan congressional group whose goal is to find $1.2 trillion in budget cuts by Thanksgiving Day. The committee was formed in August following the debt-ceiling debate that eventually led to Standard & Poor's cutting the coveted triple-A rating on U.S. debt.

If the super committee doesn't come to an agreement and vote before the Thanksgiving holiday, $1.2 trillion in automatic reductions will be triggered.

More: http://www.cnbc.com/id/45134180