Wall Street gets its cup of Joe as ceiling fears settle and US banks brighten

Might be a bit more fun today on local markets after Wall Street found its feet overnight.

The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq both jumped over 400 points before lunch, while the Dow Jones closed at 1.26% the better – all three major indices closed around 1.2% the stronger.

It’s been a bit of a stray May for global markets. The Dow is already short some 3.5%.

But that changed with the sentiment.

Hitherto disgraced regional US banks snapped back to life. The SPDR S&P Regional Bank ETF (the local bank spider) jumped 3.5%, while Western Alliance Bancorp (WAL) did something no other beleaguered US bank has done in ages – grow some deposits.

The KBW Regional Banks index (KRX) surged 6.9% as the once overwhelming worries of a liquidity crisis in the US bank sector play second fiddle for a bit.

WAL reported that its deposits were back on a “growth trajectory” with the last 3 months of deposits growth exceeding US$2 billion.

But that doesn’t explain the sudden revivification. And it’s nothing nearly as sensible as an improving business model, I’m afraid.

The punters they call investors punted on the nut bags they call politicians doing little less than talking again about avoiding a ‘catastrophe’

That catastrophe’s called the US debt ceiling and it’s getting lower everyday.

This has been the growing preoccupation of Wall Street and the hint of it moving in the right direction, has been received with open purses.

The hope is now afloat that congressional leaders and US President Joe Biden will come to an arrangement and avoid a default. Ah. Wait, a ‘catastrophic default.’

Vows have been made and after the president’s Tuesday hoedown with congressional leaders, out came the Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to declare that the chat was an improvement on what’d gone before, and that more talks are in the post.

The excitement on Wall Street seems to have originated from McCarthy’s telling US media that it might be “possible to get a deal by the end of the week.”

And possibly that Papi Joe Biden has gone and cancelled plans to pop over and placate Papua New Guinea and glad hand us for AUKUS. That’s probably all over the local news.

The US President is trimming the trip so he can get back to home base and continue getting yelled at by McCarthy and other congressional leaders on both sides of the political circus.

The White House trotted out the press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday after just 60 mins with McCarthy et al to say G7 first, then quick-snap back to save the day in Washington.

Karine Jean-Pierre told her old colleagues at MSNBC president Biden would be on the blower with US lawmakers from the G7 summit in Japan.

Around the same time, McCarthy told CNBC Wednesday that he reckons there wouldn’t be a debt default. because, he “finally got the president to agree to negotiate.”

The USD hit a six-week high enjoying its safe-haven status while the debt ceiling wobbles.

The other exciting news from the states is that naughty Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced CEO of Theranos, has to report to jail on May 30.

Last year, a federal jury in San Jose, totally convicted Holmes on four counts of defrauding investors in her outrageous blood-testing business which was taking Silicon Valley and everyone else by storm.

According to a ruling issued overnight Holmes is expected to begin her sentence of 11 years (and 3 months) at a minimum-security prison in somewhere exotic called Bryan, Texas.

Elsewhere in the world, European stocked ended lower weighed down by earnings that were not that tres bien and probably because they were out of the loop and still worrying about US banks and debt ceilings.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.15%.