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Dow Jones Closes Flat as Congress Approves Tax Bill

Published 2017-12-20, 04:17 p/m
Updated 2017-12-20, 04:39 p/m
© Reuters.

© Reuters.

Investing.com – Wall Street closed roughly unchanged as Congress approved a tax bill while bullish economic data did little to lift sentiment ahead of the US economic growth data slated for Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower at 24726.65. The S&P 500 closed 0.08% lower, while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6960.96, down 0.04%.

House Republicans approved a bill aimed at overhauling the U.S. tax system Wednesday, including reducing the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%.

The prospect of lower corporate taxes has been one the key catalysts supporting the recent rally in US equites amid expectations that benefits of the measure would spur U.S. firms to ramp up capital expenditure and share buy backs.

On the economic news front, investors cheered bullish housing data, pointing to underlying strength in the US economy, lifting expectations for a solid quarter of gains ahead of the final reading of third quarter GDP slated for Thursday.

The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday that existing home sales in November sales rose 5.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.81 million units. That beat economists’ forecasts for a 0.9% decline to 554,000 homes.

On the corporate earnings front, FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) rose more than 3% in after-hours trade after revealing quarterly results that beat on both the top and bottom lines.

'Bulls and Bears' on Wall Street

The top Dow gainers for the session: Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) up 1.1%, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) up 0.8% and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) up 1.1%

Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) down 1.3%, Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) down 1.3%, and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) down 1%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.

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