Investing.com – Wall Street barely moved on Friday as the tax reform bill was delayed over concerns that the cuts could increase the deficit.
The S&P 500 inched down half a points or 0.03% as of 10:27 AM ET (3:31 PM GMT) while the Dow composite was flat. Tech heavy NASDAQ Composite fell seven points or 0.11%.
Senate Republicans delayed a vote on the highly anticipated tax reform bill over concerns about a fiscal “trigger.” The legislation will be revised and a vote is expected on Friday morning. Republican leaders are rushing to get the bill on United States President Donald Trump’s desk before the end of the year.
Technology stocks slipped down on Friday. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) fell 0.34%, Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) was down 1.23% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) inched down 0.40% while Google’s Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) decreased 0.13%. Meanwhile General Electric (NYSE:GE) slid 1.42%.
Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) was among the biggest movers, rising 0.94% while software maker VMware Inc (NYSE:VMW) gained 4.21% after the virtualization software maker reported positive earnings results. Blue Apron Holdings Inc (NYSE:APRN) surged 5.35% amid news that its co-founder and chief executive Matt Salzberg would step down.
Elsewhere, manufacturing activity in the U.S. fell more than expected in November, dampening optimism over the U.S. economy. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of manufacturing activity decreased to 58.2 last month from October’s reading of 58.7.
Stocks in Europe were mixed. In Germany the DAX fell 13 points or 0.11% while France’s CAC 40 was up five points or 0.10% and in London the FTSE 100 rose10 points or 0.15%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 fell 22 points or 0.22% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 eased 10 points or 0.23%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.04% to $1,272.71 a troy ounce while crude oil futures surged 2.25% to 56.69 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rallied 0.19% to 93.15.