US off-year elections could be minor focus tonight

Three important off-year races are being contested today with governorships up for grabs in Virgina and New Jersey and a special election to fill an open seat in the US House of Representatives in upstate New York.

There has been heavy speculation that Republican candidates could sweep all three races. If so, the thinking is that the Obama Administration and the Democrats in Congress will have a much tougher time enacting their sweeping (and expensive) reforms.

Long story short, if Republicans win all three races, the market may downgrade the chances for some of the more expensive programs like health care reform making it out of Congress. That would be a minor boost for the dollar as deficits may be merely gargantuan under that scenario rather than ginormous.