US shutdown: Political divisions take US to within 24 hours of debt ceiling deadline with no deal in place

The US was scrambling to avert a potentially disastrous breach of its debt ceiling on Wednesday morning, after Republican attempts to table a deal collapsed in disarray overnight, leaving the prospects for a last-minute deal on a knife-edge.
America's divided political system now has just 24 hours to find a compromise to the budget stand-off between the White House and hardline Republicans, with the deadline to extend America's borrowing limit falling due on Thursday.
In a sign of plunging confidence in Washington on Wall Street, Fitch, a leading credit ratings agency announced that the US was now on a "negative watch" and at risk of being downgraded.
Market reaction was mixed, as most traders waited to see what the outcome would be.
Jonathan Sudaria, a trader at Capital Spreads in London, said: "Today is definitely not the day to be conducting any serious business as traders across the globe will be hypnotised by their TVs/terminals and anxiously waiting for something to hit the news wires."

telegraph