Market jitters over the United States debt ceiling lifted the cost of insuring exposure to its debt to the highest level in over a decade on Thursday, while JPMorgan warned of a "non-trivial risk" of a technical default on U.S. Treasuries, Reuters reported. Spreads on U.S. five-year credit default swaps — market-based gauges of the risk of a default — widened to 49 basis points, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed, more than double the level they stood at in January. A showdown over U.S. government efforts to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling for the world's largest economy have sent jitters through global financial markets. JPMorgan said in a note published late Wednesday it expected the debt ceiling to become an issue as early as May, and that the debate over both the ceiling and the federal funding bill would run "dangerously close" to final deadlines. The bank's U.S. rates strategy team expects the Treasury could run out of available resources by mid-August.
