Wall Street Shrugs off President, Focuses on Congress

Photo Credit: APWhen it comes to worrying over a possible debt default, Wall Street is brushing off President Barack Obama’s warnings and focusing its attention instead on Congress.

Investors say they currently view the words and deeds of Congress as having more power to move markets because the president is not viewed as being intimately involved in the ongoing fiscal negotiations — more of a spectator in chief as the House and Senate fight over how to break their impasse.

“The financial markets seem to believe at this point it’s really in the hands of the House and the Senate,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist with Deutsche Bank. “In other words, I think the market’s focused more on what might be happening between [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid and [Speaker] John Boehner than the president.”

This dynamic was on display in recent days as Wall Street tried to parse Washington’s jawboning.

Last week, Obama cautioned that Wall Street should be seriously worried that Congress may fail to raise the debt ceiling, saying in an interview with CNBC that markets “should be concerned” and that “this time it’s different.”

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