Wall Street ended the week on a sour note on Friday, with major indexes slipping modestly as investors weighed the fate of the Republicans’ tax overhaul plan.
Investors have been hopeful that a tax bill under debate in Congress will boost corporate earnings and further fuel the stock market’s record-setting run.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 100.12 points, or 0.43 per cent, to 23,358.24, the S&P 500 lost 6.79 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 2,578.85 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 10.50 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 6,782.79, reports Reuters.
The benchmark S&P 500 has rallied more than 15 per cent this year, supported by corporate earnings growth and solid economic data.
With nearly all of the S&P 500 companies reporting results, third-quarter earnings are expected to have climbed 8.2 per cent.
Abercrombie & Fitch jumped 23.9 per cent and Gap rose 7.0 per cent after the apparel retailers reported results that beat estimates.
Shares of sports retailers soared on better-than-expected earnings. Foot Locker jumped 28.2 per cent, Shoe Carnival surged 29.7 per cent and Hibbett Sports gained 15.2 per cent.
Twenty-First Century Fox shares rose 6.2 per cent after two people familiar with the situation said both Comcast and Verizon were interested in buying parts of its studio and TV operations.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.83-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.50-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.
About 6.3 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, below the 6.8 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.