US stalemate ‘damaged stock markets’

BlackRock chief executive Laurence Fink, who last year said he would invest 100% of his personal wealth in equities, said stock markets may decline as a result of the political debate over the debt ceiling.

“I’m much more worried about the US,” Mr Fink, who as head of the world’s biggest money manager oversees $4.1 trillion in assets, said on Bloomberg Television.

“We are going to see a lower equity market and a longer period of lower rates” if corporate earnings start to deteriorate in the fourth quarter following the stalemate in Washington, he said.