Cantor calls White House meeting useful

"WASHINGTON — Urgent efforts to prevent an economy-tanking U.S. default rose and then retreated with astonishing speed Thursday, as House Republicans floated a compromise and the White House appeared amenable, only for Senate Democrats to declare it unacceptable.

‘‘Not going to happen,’’ declared Majority Leader Harry Reid, standing outside the White House after he and fellow Democrats met with President Barack Obama. The Republican plan would leave the 10-day-old partial government shutdown in place while raising the nation’s $16.7 trillion debt limit and setting up negotiations between the GOP and Obama over spending cuts and other issues.

Heartened by any hint of progress, Wall Street chose to accentuate the positive. After days of decline, the Dow Jones industrial average soared 323 points on hopes that the divided government was taking steps to avoid a default. Reid’s dismissive comments at the White House came at the end of the trading day."