Moody's confident US will avoid default

Ratings agency Moody's has said it expects US politicians to reach an agreement on the country's debt ceiling, with a default "extremely unlikely".

Moody's chief executive Raymond McDaniel told CNBC that the ratings agency is not expecting the US to miss any of its interest payments on treasuries, even if it misses the 17 October deadline to reach an agreement on its debts. McDaniel said: "It is extremely unlikely that the Treasury is not going to continue to pay on those securities. "Hopefully it is unlikely that we go past 17 October and fail to raise the debt ceiling, but even if that does happen then we think the US Treasury is still going to pay on those Treasury securities and prioritise those payments." The government s...