It's fascinating to me that this decision was set for 5 pm ET on a friday, and I think it may be more responsible to set big deadlines like this for a time while the stock market is open. I imagine this will negatively impact confidence in the US economy at large, and stock markets will reflect that. But since the market is closed, we'll have to wait till Monday, with the tension/anticipation of a drop building. If the deadline had been set for say, midday thursday, the market would have responded immediately, but at least you wouldn't have the building anxiety over the weekend. Of course the result wasn't known ahead of time, and I imagine some people will argue that the weekend will give investors time to cool off instead of following their gut reaction. But personally I don't find those arguments very convincing.

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ajam1507 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It's extremely common to release negative news on Friday after the markets close. It happens nearly every Friday.

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pinkmuffinere 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Is there a reason that is done, beyond just tradition? I’m genuinely very curious whether there’s a positive, negative, or negligible impact on economic decision making

	▲	ajam1507 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		There are several reasons. Most obviously it's because the markets are closed which keeps immediate panic from affecting stock prices. It's also at the start of the weekend so the idea is that people might be more focused on weekend activities instead of the news. Also, news coverage on the weekend is often reheated stories written during the week meaning that a Friday story is less likely to get picked up.