NEW YORK (AP) — Investors stayed calm on the first day of a partial shutdown of the U.S. government Tuesday and sent the stock market modestly higher.

A long-running dispute in Washington over President Barack Obama's health care law caused a deadlock over the U.S. budget, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job and suspending all but essential services. With the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Democratic-controlled Senate at a stalemate, it was unclear how long a temporary bill needed to finance government activities would be stalled.

Despite the political wrangling, investors didn't push the panic button. That suggests that, at least for now, they aren't anticipating that the stalemate would cause enough disruption in the economy to threaten a gradual U.S. recovery and a four-year bull run in the stock market.