NEW YORK – U.S. stocks were lower late on Wednesday morning (U.S. time) after President Donald Trump’s warning of a government shutdown to secure funds to build the Mexico border wall added to nerves as the deadline to the raise the U.S. debt ceiling looms.
Lawmakers face a late-September deadline to raise the debt ceiling or risk a default, and Trump’s comments on Tuesday evening came hours after a lawmaker said there was “zero chance” of the ceiling not being raised.
Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday a failure by U.S. officials to raise the ceiling in a timely manner would prompt it to review its rating on U.S. sovereign debt, “with potentially negative implications.”
“Trump saying he would be willing to shut down the government over the wall obviously doesn’t really inspire much confidence in anyone,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.
“The debt limit, which is truly urgent and something that needs to be addressed, where theoretically failure should not be an option, that is something of a litmus test for the market.”
Investors have grown increasingly concerned about the Trump’s ability to legislate his pro-growth agenda given the near constant political rumblings in the White House.
At 11:01 a.m. ET (11:01 p.m. PH time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 58.78 points, or 0.27 percent, at 21,841.11 and the S&P 500 .SPX was down 6.83 points, or 0.28 percent, at 2,445.68.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 21.91 points, or 0.35 percent, at 6,275.56.
