Yeah right, all the world's computers are going to crash at midnight so clean out the old cold war bomb shelter. Actually, I doubt the Y2K meltdown is going to be very severe. Still, I think I'll skip the Times Square midnight celebration. Y2K, as overrated as it is, will have a drag effect on the profit margins of many big automated corporations and thus a dampening effect on GDP growth. Perhaps the biggest effect of the Y2K hullabaloo is the uncertainty.
Markets just hate uncertainty.
Better buy some bonds. Part of this uncertainty has nothing to do with computers. The year 2000 has an almost mystical resonance for many people, even though it's an absolutely arbitrary marker. Every nut case in the world using a Gregorian calendar is going to come out of the closet to celebrate the end of the millennium in their own special way, whatever that might be. Uncertainty is bad.