Investing.com – Wall Street was mixed on Wednesday as Congress prepares to for the final passage of the tax reform bill.
The S&P 500 rose just over one and a half points or 0.06% as of 10:03 AM ET (15:03 GMT) while the Dow composite increased 25 points or 0.10% and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite was down 11 points or 0.17%.
Congress is expected to vote on the tax reform bill again on Wednesday, after lawmakers violated a Senate procedural measure. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that if the bill is approved, there will be a White House news conference at approximately 1:00 PM ET (18:00 GMT).
The tax bill would cut corporate taxes to 21% from 35%, which some say would encourage companies to spend more, boosting the economy.
Semiconductor Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) was among the top gainers, jumping 3.77% after posting higher than expected first quarter earnings results. Mobile payments firm Net Element Inc (NASDAQ:NETE) surged 262.66% after it launched a business unit focused on blockchain technology while software company Blackberry (TO:BB) rose 9.18% after it reported a fall in revenue that was less than analysts expected.
Elsewhere technology stocks were down, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) falling 0.42% and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) down 1.10% while Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) slipped 0.69% and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) decreased 0.84%. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) was also down 1.44% and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) dipped 0.75%.
In Europe stocks were down. In Germany the DAX fell 75 points or 0.57% while France’s CAC 40 decreased 14 points or 0.28% and in London the FTSE 100 lost seven points or 0.10%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 was down eight points or 0.08% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 slipped 15 points or 0.42%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.20% to $1,266.70 a troy ounce while crude oil futures increased 0.24% to 57.70 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.08% to 92.98.