While we received some surprising domestic data late last week in the form of the Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing Index, which moved higher in June despite a number of other unfavorable manufacturing reports in recent weeks, commodities have since moved higher from recent lows and the credit outlook for Chinas banks fell following a report by Moody's Investors Service.
With signs multiplying that debt-reduction talks between the White House and Congress are at an impasse, Wall Street credit agencies are stepping up their warnings that even a temporary delay in making payment on the government's $14.3 trillion of debt will result in a significant cut in the nation's perfect credit rating.
Moody's Investors Service added urgency to the congressional debate over the debt limit by threatening to downgrade the nation's credit rating unless a deal is struck in the coming weeks making a "substantive change in the debt trajectory." That was Thursday. On Monday, more than 100 of the most conservative Republicans in the House insisted such an agreement would have to be big.
Standard & Poor's Corp., one of Wall Street's top ratings agencies, put the United States on notice Monday that it may lose its gold-plated AAA rating if it does not act quickly to pare down deficits ranging over $1 trillion for years to come.
The District is considering selling United Medical Center, the formerly for-profit hospital the city bought last summer.
Federal regulators have taken a first step toward eliminating the use of credit ratings in rules for banks, under a mandate of the new financial- overhaul law.
China boosted its holdings of U.S. Treasury debt for the second straight month as total foreign holdings of U.S. government debt increased.
France and Germany on Monday proposed suspending the voting rights of European Union members who persistently break budget deficit limits, a major reform that would put teeth for the first time in the union's economic pact, but one that faces legal hurdles.
Moody's Investors Service on Monday slashed Greece's credit rating to junk status as a delegation from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union started an interim review of the country's efforts to pull itself out of a major debt crisis.
