Equities advance as fears over debt ceiling expire

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Shares rose on Thursday, with investors encouraging developments in Washington as lawmakers moved closer to a deal that would temporarily avoid a government default by mid-month.

All three major indices extended Wednesday’s gains after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered Democratic lawmakers a deal temporarily extend the government’s borrowing limit until December. Such a move would provide time to prevent a government default that many experts say could arise as early as October 18.

The issue of the debt ceiling has been at the center of the concerns of business leaders and market players. Earlier Wednesday, President Joe Biden met with key business leaders, including Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan and Adena Friedman, CEO of Nasdaq, who urged lawmakers to raise the debt ceiling and prevent a government default, which they said would be catastrophic for the U.S. economy. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also told CNBC she expected a government default to cause a recession.

“The debt ceiling is currently one of the many factors that we believe are causing these gyrations in the markets. The market will certainly be reassured when there is an agreement, when it is more formalized. “said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist. for BMO Wealth Management, told Yahoo Finance.

The ongoing debt ceiling debate has been just one of many market concerns in recent weeks, all of which have come together to catalyze volatility in risky assets.

In addition to concerns about the debt ceiling, “the markets are looking for a solution, or at least an end in view of the supply chain problems, to escalating inflationary pressures,” Ma added. “The markets are also starting to start. look to the Fed’s November meeting, and hope the Fed doesn’t post excessive future interest rate hikes either… So a number of things are happening. “

Soaring energy and commodity prices also weighed on investor optimism, reinforcing the continuing trend of upward price pressures in the global economy.

U.S. crude oil futures, however, pulled out for a second straight session Thursday morning, adding to losses following a Financial Times report that U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm had failed. excluded from releasing crude oil from the government’s strategic oil reserve or banning crude exports to try and control prices. Intermediate West Texas crude oil hit its highest price since 2014 earlier this week.

“Soaring energy prices will only worsen any supply chain problems we have experienced over the past year. I suspect the supply chain problems will get worse before they go. improve, ”Troy Vincent, senior market analyst at DTN, told Yahoo Finance Live.

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9:32 a.m. ET: Stock futures surge, Dow adds over 350 points, or 1%

Here are the main moves in the markets at 9:32 a.m. ET:

S&P 500 (^ GSPC): +37.28 (+ 0.95%) to 4,405.18
Dow (^ DJI): +372.34 (+1.07%) to 34,789.33
Nasdaq (^ IXIC): +150.61 (+1.04%) to 14,652.31
Raw (CL = F): $ -0.47 (-0.61%) to $ 76.96 per barrel
Gold (CG = F): – $ 8.90 (-0.51%) to $ 1,752.90 per ounce
10-year cash flow (^ TNX): + 2.8 bps for a yield of 1.552%

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8:55 a.m. ET: Pfizer asks FDA to clear COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11

Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) Thursday said they were submitting data to the Food and Drug Administration to seek authorization for emergency use of their COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11. Shares of both drugmakers were higher in early trading.

The FDA previously held an interim advisory committee meeting to discuss the pediatric vaccine on October 26.

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8:35 a.m. ET: Weekly jobless claims fell more than expected last week

New weekly jobless claims fell more sharply than expected last week, with the labor market impacts of Hurricane Ida and the Delta variant starting to fade.

Initial jobless claims totaled 326,000 for the week ended Oct. 2, the Labor Department said Thursday. This is lower than the previous week’s 364,000, which has been revised up from the previously reported 362,000.

At the end of the week of September 18, about 4.2 million people were claiming benefits under all unemployment programs, up from 5 million in the previous week. Those numbers have fallen sharply in recent weeks, in large part due to the expiration of federal crisis unemployment programs on September 6.

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