Proactive Investors - The FTSE 100 is expected to open higher as forecasting busting results from Nvidia after the US market close lifted the mood despite the continuing deadlock in US debt ceiling talks.
Spread betting companies see London’s lead index up by around 20 points.
The impact of a US default was reflected as credit ratings agency Fitch Ratings put the US on negative watch reflecting the impasse in Washington.
Fitch said it has placed the United States' 'AAA' Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating on Rating Watch Negative.
“The Rating Watch Negative reflects increased political partisanship that is hindering reaching a resolution to raise or suspend the debt limit despite the fast-approaching x date,” Fitch said.
“Fitch still expects a resolution to the debt limit before the x-date.”
“However, we believe risks have risen that the debt limit will not be raised or suspended before the x-date and consequently that the government could begin to miss payments on some of its obligations.”
Shares in Nvidia jumped 25% as the US chipmaker beat Street expectations and forecast sales to reach $11bn in the three months to the end of July, more than 50% ahead of the $7.2bn analysts had been expecting.
On Wall Street earlier, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 255.59 points, or 0.8%, to 32,799.92. The S&P 500 declined 30.34 points, 0.7%, 4,115.24 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 76.08 points, 0.6%, at 12,484.16
The minutes from the last FOMC meeting showed Fed officials were “less certain” of the need for further rate rises given the economic outlook.