Wall Street closed the week in a dramatic fashion as the Republicans pulled their bill to dismantle Obamacare. Although major US equity indices dropped quickly to session lows right after the announcement, losses were limited on President Trump's statements which suggested that the Republicans would start working on the tax reform bill next.
“Whatever the case may be, tax reform was always second on the agenda. What may have changed is that now they’ll go to tax reform next and not come back to this,” Joe LaVorgna, Deutsche Bank AG chief U.S economist, said in a phone interview to Bloomberg.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 59.86 points, or 0.29%, to end at 20,596.72, the S&P 500 gained 2.25 points, or 0.1%, to 2,342.25 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 11.05 points, or 0.19%, at 5,828.74.
For the week, the Dow fell 1.5%, while the S&P lost 1.4%, and the Nasdaq dropped 1.2%, highlighting the largest weekly percentage loss of the year for major U.S. stock indexes.
The latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday showed that speculators' net bearish bets on U.S. 10-year Treasury note futures fell to their lowest since November on renewed safe-haven bids for bonds in doubts about U.S. President Donald Trump's ability to deliver his economic agenda, according to Reuters.
Headlines from the U.S. session
Trump: Republicans will probably work on tax reform now We came up short on bill - U.S. House Speaker Ryan US Dollar jumps above 99.50 U.S. drillers added 21 oil rigs in the week to March 24 General expectation for longer term market rates to rise as Fed tightens - Fed's Dudley No need for aggressive rate hikes to keep inflation in check - Fed's Bullard There is further room for economic growth - U.S. Treasury's Mnuchin