WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic and Republican congressional leaders shopped competing debt-crisis solutions and President Barack Obama canceled fundraising appearances Monday, as a politically gridlocked capital lurched into a climactic last full week before the Aug. 2 default deadline.

Even amid acknowledgments by U.S. leaders of the need to reassure jittery investors, world markets slipped and both the Dow Jones and Standard & Poor's 500 were down in early trading on Wall Street with the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the government's borrowing limit fast approaching.

House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid planned to unveil separate deficit reduction plans with their respective House and Senate caucuses after the Obama White House and Congress made little apparent headway in private talks over a long, steamy weekend.

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