Cost of insuring vs US default increases before vote on debt ceiling bill
1:16 pm Wednesday, May 31st, 2023
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The cost of insuring exposure to a U.S. debt default rose on Wednesday, with investors focused on a debt ceiling vote in the House of Representatives later in the day.
The U.S. one-year credit default swap (CDS) – a market-based gauge of the risk of default – climbed to 76 basis points (bps) from 56 bps late on Tuesday, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed. U.S. five-year CDS also edged up to 43 bps versus 42 bps the previous session.
The House Rules Committee late on Tuesday, in the first procedural vote on the legislation, cleared the measure for debate in the full House on Wednesday. Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted that the evening vote would succeed, telling reporters, “It’s going to become law.” Republicans control the House by a narrow 222-213 majority.
“With concerted opposition emerging among the ultraconservative Republican Freedom Caucus and some on the far left of the Democratic Party, more moderate representatives are likely to form a makeshift cross-aisle coalition in order to advance the measure to the Senate and avoid a default by June 5,” Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at Corpay in Toronto, wrote in a research note.
“Markets remain broadly unconcerned,” Schamotta wrote.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Will Dunham)
