A day of volatile trading saw gold touch a new high of $1,630, the FTSE 100 slide more than 1pc, the Dow Jones drop 1.6p - the biggest fall in eight weeks - and US government bonds sold off as the world's eyes again focused on a deeply divided Washington.
President Barack Obama, as well as the Republican House of Representatives and the Democratic Senate, are running out of time to agree to lift the country's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. The US Treasury has said that it won't be able to pay all its bills by next Tuesday, raising the spectre of the country's first major default in its history.
While there was no sign of panic selling in any market, the breezy confidence that investors once had over a deal being struck is fading with each passing day. Leaders in Washington have been engaged in fruitless talks for weeks, and yesterday offered markets little hope the impasse will be resolved before the weekend.
"The uncertainty that is out there is obviously troubling for people - the thing with the debt ceiling and just our own fiscal structure in the country is you have this overhang, this cloud," said Jason Clark, a fund manager at AFAM.
The White House and top Congressional leaders have been working on an ambitious plan to cut the country's deficit by up to $4 trillion as a condition of raising the debt ceiling. Since the collapse of talks between President Obama and John Boehner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the US's top Republican, late last week, politicians from both sides have instead worked on competing plans to raise the country's borrowing limit. Public comments from each side suggested the divisions between them are hardening as the deadline approaches.
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