US markets end lower as debt-ceiling clouds hover

25 May 2023 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Wednesday as talks between the White House and Republican representatives on raising the U.S. debt ceiling dragged on without a deal. The lack of progress on raising the U.S. government's $31.4 trillion debt limit ahead of a June 1 deadline, with several rounds of inconclusive talks, has made investors edgier as the risk of a catastrophic default looms larger. Cautiousness also prevailed in the markets as the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its May monetary policy meeting, indicating uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates. The minutes revealed participants generally agreed that in light of the lagged effects of cumulative tightening in monetary policy and the potential effects on the economy of a further tightening in credit conditions, the extent to which additional rate hikes may be appropriate had become less certain.

Some participants felt additional rate increases would likely to be warranted at future meetings due to expectations that progress in returning inflation to 2 percent could continue to be unacceptably slow. Meanwhile, several others noted that if the economy evolved along the lines of their current outlooks, then further rate hikes may not be necessary. On the sectoral front, gold stocks showed a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 2.2 percent to a two-month closing low. The weakness among gold stocks came amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for June delivery falling $9.90 to $1,964.60 an ounce. Considerable weakness was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 2.2 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. The index tumbled to its lowest closing level in five months.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 255.59 points or 0.77 percent to 32,799.92, Nasdaq dropped 76.08 points or 0.61 percent to 12,484.16 and S&P 500 was down by 30.34 points or 0.73 percent to 4,115.24. 


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