Update at 10:16 a.m.ET: S&P says it has little confidence that the White House and Congress will agree on a deficit-reduction plan before the fall 2012 elections, the AP reports. By that time, the measures won‘t go into effect until the fiscal year 2014.

„We see the path to agreement as challenging because the gap between the parties remains wide,“ said Standard & Poor‘s credit analyst Nikola G. Swann.