US Debt Ceiling Talks Spark Market Anxiety.

Asian stocks and Wall Street futures struggled on Monday as U.S. debt ceiling negotiations approached crunch time after stalling last week, while lingering banking fears and fresh geopolitical worries also capped sentiment. A failure to lift the debt ceiling would trigger a default, likely sparking chaos in financial markets and a spike in interest rates. Meanwhile, regional U.S. bank shares continued to fall on Friday, as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reportedly warned that more mergers may be necessary after a series of bank failures. The Fed chief also flagged that after a year of aggressive rate increases, officials can afford to make "careful assessments" of the impact of rate hikes on the economic outlook, a stance that was viewed as dovish by markets.