US: Wall St flat as Trump's tax plan eyed

[NEW YORK] US stocks were little changed on Wednesday amid a flood of corporate earnings and ahead of a highly anticipated tax reform plan.

At 9.39 am ET (1339 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 17.39 points, or 0.08 per cent, at 21,013.51 and the S&P 500 was up 1.42 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 2,390.03.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 5.58 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 6,031.07 easing from an all-time high of 6,037.21.

President Donald Trump is proposing to slash the corporate tax rate and offer multinational businesses a steep tax break on overseas profits brought into the United States, officials said late on Tuesday.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that the plan would cut the business tax rate to 15 percent and that there was fundamental agreement with Congress on tax reform goals. The administration is expected to release details of the plan later on Wednesday, he said. "We have a pretty good idea that he (Trump) is targeting lower corporate taxes, lower individual taxes and a simplification of the process, but all that is in an ideal world," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey. "The market will not interpret the plan negatively, but there are obstacles in that course, just like with anything that Trump says and does."

REUTERS

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