US Senate leaders yesterday struck a bipartisan deal to reopen the government and approve new sovereign borrowings, ending three weeks of high drama on Capitol Hill that pushed the US to the edge of a debt default.
With pressure mounting from US business and overseas creditors such as China, the Senate agreed to end the partial government shutdown and extend the debt ceiling into early next year while Democrats and Republicans start negotiations on a new budget.
US equity markets rallied on the prospect of the deal, with the S&P 500 index climbing 1.2 per cent, leaving it just 0.6 per cent below a record it struck last month following the Federal Reserve’s decision not to begin scaling back its quantitative easing programme.