NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks were mostly higher early Monday ahead of afternoon fiscal talks between President Joe Biden and Republican leaders to avert a US debt default.

After a weekend of near deadlock, Biden arrived back in Washington late Sunday, ahead of the US Treasury’s June 1 deadline for Congress to authorize more borrowing.

About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2 percent at 33,375.49.

Wall St slips on debt ceiling uncertainty

The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.2 percent at 4,200.28, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.6 percent to 12,729.79.

“The stock market is certainly attentive to the situation, but it does not appear to be overly anxious about the debt ceiling not being raised,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare. “That could change the closer we get to June without a deal, yet the futures trade this morning isn’t the picture of heightened angst.”

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari told CNBC that it is a “close call” on whether the central bank should again lift interest rates in June, but added that such a move would not guarantee an end to the Fed’s tightening cycle.

Chevron fell 1.6 percent after announcing it will acquire PDC Energy for $6.3 billion, bolstering its holdings in US properties in Colorado and the Permian Basin, an area in Texas and New Mexico.