S&P 500 posts biggest daily decline in 3 weeks as U.S. debt-ceiling uncertainty weighs on stocks

U.S. stocks ended lower in volatile trade on Tuesday as investor jitters grew over limited progress in U.S. debt-ceiling negotiations as default deadline approaches. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.69%
dropped 231 points, or 0.7%, to finish at 33,055. The S&P 500
SPX,
-1.12%
was off 1.1%, posting its biggest daily decline since May 2, according to FactSet data. The Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-1.26%
tumbled 1.3%. Representatives of President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans continued the debt-ceiling talks on Tuesday with no signs of progress as the deadline to raise the U.S. government’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit is approaching. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday said the 14th Amendment is not going to resolve Washington’s debt-ceiling standoff. Meanwhile, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reportedly told Republicans that the negotiations still have some distance to go. Uncertainty around the standoff pushed yields on Treasury bills maturing between early and mid-June toward 6% on Tuesday. The yield on the six-month Treasury bill
TMUBMUSD06M,
5.355%
also went up to as high as 5.41%, its highest level since 2000.