LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global stock markets declined on Wednesday as talks over a U.S. debt ceiling dragged on without a solution, adding to a general malaise in markets that saw safe-haven assets such as the dollar and gold slide around their were hovering recent highs.
* Crude oil, however, halted losses and continued to rise following a warning to speculators by the Saudi energy minister that raised the prospect of further OPEC+ production cuts.
* Negotiators for the president, Democrat Joe Biden, and top Republican congressman, Kevin McCarthy, are due to meet later in the day to try to end the impasse in their debt ceiling talks.
* Wall Street’s main indexes were down about 0.8% and MSCI’s measure of global shares was down 1.05%.
* “Stock markets are starting to get uneasy about the debt ceiling debate,” said Nicolas Colas, co-founder of Datatrack Research.
* The yield on one-month bonds, which are deferred over concerns that payments will be due when Treasuries are most at risk of running out of money, hovered near an all-time high of 5.8920%. The yield on 10-year notes fell to 3.7380%.
* The dollar index, which compares the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.36% at 103.91, breaking a two-month high of 103.63 hit last week.
* The benchmark European STOXX 600 index fell 1.8%, its lowest in a month and a half, as rising core inflation in Britain and losses in large luxury stocks hurt risk sentiment.
* MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares fell 1.1%.
* In commodities, gold was down 0.77% at $1,959.6 as traders looked at talks on debt ceiling and possibility of further hike in interest rates from central banks.
* Crude oil price extended Tuesday’s gains and rose over $1.
