“US Congress Vote on Raising Debt Ceiling Impacts European and Wall Street Shares”

European shares fell on Tuesday, but Wall Street was broadly unchanged ahead of a vote this week in the US Congress on raising the US national debt ceiling, which would allow the US to avoid default.

As trading resumed after a three-day weekend, the Paris and London bourses fell more than 1%, while the Frankfurt stock index fell 0.3%.

The US stock index “Standard & Poor’s 500” practically did not change, the index “Dow Jones Industrial Average” decreased slightly, and the index “Nasdaq Composite” increased moderately.

Oil prices fell more than 4% as market participants awaited news on the US financial situation and weighed conflicting announcements by OPEC+ members on new production cuts, as well as signs that oil demand in China is recovering more slowly than expected.

US President Joe Biden and Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday evening reached a final agreement on the national debt ceiling, which makes it possible to avoid a national default.

The draft law, on which an agreement has been reached, provides for the abolition of the debt ceiling by January 1, 2025, so that this issue does not have to be returned to next year, when the presidential elections will be held. On the other hand, expenses not related to defense will remain virtually unchanged next year and will increase by only 1% in 2025.

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the bill on Wednesday, before it will be considered by the Senate. The U.S. Treasury Department had estimated that the U.S. national debt ceiling, which currently stands at $31.4 trillion, would be reached on June 5. Failure to reach a solution by this date would result in a state default.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% to 33,042.78 on Tuesday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was unchanged at 4,205.52, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3%. up to 13,017.43 points.

London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.4% to 7,522.07 on Tuesday, Frankfurt’s DAX fell 0.3% to 15,908.91 and Paris’ CAC 40 fell 1.3% to 7,209. 75 points.

WTI crude oil fell 4.4% to $69.46 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. “Brent” crude oil price on the London exchange decreased by 4.6% to 73.54 dollars per barrel.

On the Dutch exchange “Title Transfer Facility” (TTF), the price of natural gas rose by 0.48% to 24.68 euros per megawatt hour on Tuesday.

The euro rose against the US dollar on Tuesday from $1.0708 to $1.0739 per euro, the British pound against the US dollar rose from $1.2355 to $1.2404 per pound and the US dollar against the Japanese yen fell from 140.45 to 139.80 yen to the dollar. The euro fell against the British pound from 86.66 to 86.48 pence per euro.