US: Stocks dip as Congress passes massive tax cut

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks dipped on Wednesday as the House of Representatives approved a sweeping US tax cut and sent the long-awaited measure to President Donald Trump's desk.

The vote in the lower congressional chamber was the last major hurdle before the controversial US$1.5 trillion tax overhaul is signed into law by Trump. Wall Street has viewed the measure as Washington's most important priority since the 2016 US election.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.1 per cent to end the session at 24,726.65.

The broad-based S&P 500 also declined 0.1 per cent to 2,679.25, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped less than 0.1 per cent to 6,960.96.

The declines followed numerous stock market records in recent weeks in anticipation of the massive tax cut seen as a boon for companies.

The measure is expected to boost corporate earnings, but critics argued most of the benefits would go to the wealthy and the measure would explode the deficit. No Democrats supported the bill.

Blue-chip companies with especially large declines included Disney, Nike and Pfizer, which all fell at least one per cent.

Petroleum-linked shares rose with oil prices after a US inventory report showed lower crude stockpiles. Halliburton surged 3.4 per cent, Dow member Chevron gained 0.9 per cent and Devon Energy climbed 3.0 per cent.

FedEx rose 3.5 per cent after reporting a second-quarter profits rose 10.7 per cent to US$775 million and boosting its earnings forecast.

Chip company Micron Technology jumped 4.0 per cent as first-quarter earnings rose 13.1 per cent to US$2.7 billion on strong growth in its business connected to mobile technology and servers.

AFP