tocks fell for a third day and commodities slid as a stalemate over the debt ceiling pushed the U.S. closer to default and durable-goods orders unexpectedly dropped. The dollar rallied, while Brazilian shares neared a bear market. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 1.1 percent to 1,317.29 at 11:48 a.m. in New York. The cost of insuring against default on Treasuries climbed to the highest level since February 2010 even as U.S. debt recovered from earlier losses. Gold reached a record $1,628.05 an ounce as investors sought haven assets, while coffee and oil lost more than 1 percent to lead the S&P GSCI Index of raw materials down 0.4 percent. The Dollar Index rose 0.8 percent. Brazil’s Bovespa index extended the drop from its bull-market peak to 20 percent.
The dispute over plans to cut the U.S. federal deficit has stolen investor attention away from an earnings season that has seen higher-than-estimated results at about 81 percent of S&P 500 companies that reported so far. Shares of industrial companies helped lead declines today after a Commerce Department report showed durable goods orders fell 2.1 percent.
“We’re in a holding period until we get to the debt ceiling resolution,” James Gaul, a money manager at Boston Advisors LLC in Boston, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees about $1.8 billion. “Earnings reports are going to move individual stocks more than the overall market.”
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