U.S. stocks rallied, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) toward a record, as the Senate crafted a deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling before tomorrow’s deadline.
The S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent to 1,721.47 at 4 p.m. in New York. The benchmark gauge slid 0.7 percent yesterday after climbing 3.3 percent over the previous four days.
“Investors are relieved that it looks like we’re not going to go over the cliff,” Ben Hart, a research analyst at Radnor, Pennsylvania-based Haverford Trust Co., which oversees about $6 billion, said by phone. “It takes the worst case scenario off the table.”
The S&P 500 dropped 4.1 percent from its all-time high of 1,725.52 reached Sept. 18 as Congress struggled to reach agreement on a federal budget, forcing the first partial government shutdown in 17 years. The gauge has recovered 4 percent of the decline as optimism grew that a deal would be reached, and is within about four points of its record. The S&P 500 is up 21 percent for the year.
The bipartisan leaders of the Senate reached an agreement to end the fiscal impasse and to increase U.S. borrowing authority. The Senate and House plan to vote on it later today, and the White House press secretary said President Barack Obama supports the deal.
The framework negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would fund the government through Jan. 15, 2014, and suspend the debt limit until Feb. 7, setting up another round of confrontations.
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