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Debt ceiling negotiations intensify as warning on U.S. credit rating adds urgency



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WASHINGTON — A stark new warning from the Fitch credit rating agency about U.S. debt added fresh urgency Thursday to ongoing debt ceiling negotiations between the White House and congressional Republicans, with only seven days to go before the United States faces an imminent threat of debt default.Fitch Ratings, one of the big three ratings agencies, announced late Wednesday that it had placed the United States’ triple-A status on “rating watch negative.”related investing news 3 hours ago”The brinkmanship over the debt ceiling, failure of the U.S. authorities to meaningfully tackle medium-term fiscal challenges that will lead to rising budget deficits and a growing debt burden signal downside risks to U.S. creditworthiness,” Fitch said in a statement on the decision.The agency also strongly implied that if Congress could not reach a deal before the Treasury Department’s June 1 deadline to raise or suspend the debt limit, Fitch would downgrade America’s credit rating.Such a failure “would be a negative signal of the broader governance and willingness of the U.S. to honor its obligations in a timely fashion, which would be unlikely to be consistent with a ‘AAA’ rating, in Fitch’s view.”The warning came just hours after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sought to calm jittery financial markets.”I wouldn’t scare the markets in any shape or form,” the Californ …

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