Wall St under pressure with focus on Trump's tax bill
Wall Street's main indexes slipped and government bond yields rose on Wednesday, as investors closely watched a pivotal debate over U.S. President Donald Trump's tax-cut bill that has fanned concerns about the country's growing debt.
The gate-keeping House Rules Committee scheduled an unusual 1 a.m. ET hearing that is expected to run well into daylight hours, as Republicans try to overcome internal divisions about cuts to the Medicaid health program and tax breaks in high-cost coastal states.
Nonpartisan analysts say the proposed plan could add $3 trillion to $5 trillion to the federal government's $36.2 trillion in debt.
"(We're seeing) the American exceptionalism narrative unwind, so you have a natural process of something weakening after years of concentration," said David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation.
"We're kind of pouring gasoline on the fire with tariffs and all of this budgetary uncertainty."
At 09:34 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 352.28 points, or 0.83%, to 42,324.96, the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab lost 31.84 points, or 0.54%, to 5,908.62 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab lost 97.35 points, or 0.51%, to 19,045.36.
Source: Reuters
