Wall Street doesn't seem worried about default

In Washington, the fight over whether to raise the federal debt limit has grown uglier by the day. The White House says the limit must be raised by Aug. 2 or the government won't be able to pay its bills, possibly including U.S. bonds held around the world.

But as the deadline nears, stocks and bonds have barely flinched.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell just 54 points Thursday and stands about where it did at the start of the month. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond, which usually rises when investors see it as a riskier bet, is considerably lower than earlier this year.

It may seem an odd, even reckless, reaction by investors. But it isn't completely crazy.

Take the ho-hum reaction from the bond market. In theory, investors in U.S. Treasury bonds should demand higher interest payments when there's a greater risk they won't get their money back -- in this case, in the event of a default next month.

Instead, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose only slightly Thursday, to 2.95 percent. In February, when the U.S. economic recovery seemed stronger and the debt limit was a distant threat, it was 3.74 percent.

But in this market, as in the schoolyard, size wins. The U.S. has $14 trillion in outstanding Treasury bonds. That dwarfs government bonds of any other nation. U.S. debt is held more widely and traded more often than any other government's IOU.

That matters because pensions, private investment funds and central banks the world over want to know that they can buy and sell these holdings fast -- what investors call liquidity. During the credit crisis of 2008, investors bought U.S. Treasurys because they were perceived as not only safe but liquid.

"It's very nice that Switzerland is a safe place," says Avi Tiomkin, a hedge fund consultant who holds Treasurys. "But if you're the Russian or Chinese central bank, it's just too small."

Steve Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities, points to another reason the markets are calm: The U.S. may seem a more dangerous place to park your money given its rising debt, but much of the rest of the world isn't faring well, either.

He notes that Europe is trying to contain a debt crisis. Yields on bonds of various countries there have gone up recently. "The U.S. is the best in a bad world," he says, so people have no choice but to invest here.

As for stocks, there's plenty of news -- some very good -- to distract investors from Washington's problems. U.S. companies are issuing their financial results for the latest quarter, and they're expected to post big profits -- up 15 percent, according to a survey by data provider FactSet.

JPMorgan Chase reported profits up 13 percent Thursday, higher than analysts had expected. The stock rose sharply on the news. Earlier in the day, it was that bank's CEO, James Dimon, who warned that a failure by Congress to agree to raise the debt ceiling could mean "catastrophe."

On Wednesday, Moody's Investors Services warned it might take away the United States' top-notch credit rating if it missed even one interest payment on its bonds. In testimony before Congress on Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said a U.S. default could throw the financial system into "chaos."