3 Hours Ago
These are the sectors most likely to be hardest hit in a debt-ceiling drawdown, according to RBC’s Lori Calvasina
Investors have turned their focus on the debt ceiling as the next potential cue for a market decline as President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meet Monday evening.
Financials, energy, materials and industrials were among the worst performing sectors in the S&P 500 in previous debt ceiling-related drawdowns, Lori Calvasina of RBC Capital Markets said on CNBC’s “Fast Money” Monday night. She cited the firm’s analysis of drawdowns around the debt ceiling dating back to 2011.
Defensive sectors held up the best during these declines, with health care as the worst performing corner of that sector. Tech and growth sectors were “smack dab in the middle,” said Calvasina, RBC’s head of U.S. equity strategy.
“I do think tech gets hurt, but it probably holds up better than some of those more cyclically oriented areas if we don’t get a deal,” she added.
— Darla Mercado
4 Hours Ago
McCarthy and Biden meet as debt ceiling looms on markets
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy spoke to reporters around when they were scheduled to meet about the debt ceiling.
Biden said he was hopeful about progress and emphasized the need to ensure tax loopholes are closed so wealthy people pay a fair share of taxes. McCarthy said he was looking forward to finding common ground, after saying earlier in the day that decisions have to be made at the meeting.
Investors have been watching for updates on progress out of debt ceiling negotiations amid concerns for what a default could mean for the economy.
— Alex Harring
4 Hours Ago
Yellen’s latest guidance: ‘Highly likely’ Treasury will be unable to cover debts in early June
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has just released a new letter to congressional leaders with updated guidance on the earliest date that the U.S. could be at serious risk of a debt default.
The date remains June 1 in the new letter, the same date it’s been since the start of May. But the new message contains two key differences from a very similar letter Yellen penned on May 15.
“With an additional week of information now available, I am writing to note that we estimate that it is highly likely that Treasury will no longer be able to satisfy all of the government’s obligations if Congress has not acted to raise or suspend the debt limit by earlyJune, and potentially as early as June 1,” writes Yellen.
The phrase “highly likely” is new. Last week Yellen wrote that it was merely “likely.”
Yellen also removed an entire sentence from last week’s letter that said emergency measures Treasury is currently taking could help to push that June deadline out.
“The actual date Treasury exhausts extraordinary measures could be a number of days or weeks later than these estimates,” read Yellen’s May 15 letter to congressional leaders.
The new letter comes as President Joe Biden is about to meet face to face with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, part of an increasingly urgent effort to reach a bipartisan compromise deal.
— Christina Wilkie
4 Hours Ago
Stock futures are up slightly
Stock futures were modestly higher shortly after 6 p.m. ET.
Futures tied to the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were all up 0.1%.
— Alex Harring
