Wall Street stocks pulled back Friday amid skepticism over the prospects for a US tax cut, as Apple dipped after delaying the release of its anticipated HomePod speaker program. The House of Representatives, as expected on Thursday approved its version of the tax reform legislation, while a key Senate panel cleared a different version.
Analysts were girding for a much tougher battle in the upper chamber of Congress. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted Friday that a final tax plan would reach President Donald Trump's desk by Christmas, but observers said that time-frame would be tough.
The battle for tax reform moves to "the hard part," said Oxford Economics. "The hurdles get higher from here as the Senate will have a tougher time than the House did in passing legislation." The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.4 percent to close the week at 23,358.24, its second straight losing week.
The broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.3 percent to end at 2,578.85, also below last week's close, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.2 percent to 6,782.79. Apple dipped 0.6 percent after pushing back the launch of its HomePod.
-AFP, New York
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