Wall Street’s three major indices on Friday climbed to record closing highs with broad-based gains as a long-awaited US bill to cut corporate tax rates looked like it would win enough support from US lawmakers to pass.
US congressional Republicans were expected to release final details of their plan late on Friday, with decisive votes planned for next week, after lawmakers who had previously criticized the bill started to voice their support.
Republican US Senator Bob Corker joined US Senator Marco Rubio in signaling support in the late afternoon.
Rubio had criticized the initial proposal, saying it did not give enough tax relief to working families, while Corker had expressed concerned about the bill’s effects on the federal deficit.
The bill is expected to drop corporate tax rates from 35 to 21 percent and some investors are betting that companies will put most of the savings toward a boost in shareholder payouts.
“It’s meaningful in terms of its impact on shareholders. You’re going to see an increase in stock buybacks, maybe some dividend payouts,” said David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial Inc in Boston.
“By and large there’s a high correlation between higher equity prices and consumer confidence and consumer spending. Some translates into rising consumer sentiment and better feelings about job security,” he said.
However, as the tax package has evolved, it has tilted increasingly toward benefiting businesses and the wealthy, a trend that concerned some lawmakers.
The S&P 500 was up 1 percent after Corker announced his support, but could not sustain those levels as investors awaited tax bill details, said Brian Battle, director of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago.
“We don’t know how stimulative it will actually be,” Battle said. “There shouldn’t be any surprises. The stuff they were apart on seems manageable.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday rose 143.08 points, or 0.58 percent, to 24,651.74, the S&P 500 gained 23.8 points, or 0.90 percent, to 2,675.81 and the NASDAQ Composite added 80.06 points, or 1.17 percent, to 6,936.58.
The S&P 500 and the Dow closed higher for the fourth week in a row, while the NASDAQ saw its first weekly gain out of three.
For the week, the Dow rose 1.3 percent, the S&P gained 0.9 percent and the NASDAQ Composite rose 1.4 percent.
The S&P’s Energy index was the only one of its 11 majors in the red with a 0.03 percent dip.
Technology and Healthcare indices led the advance with 1.24 and 1.17 percent gains, respectively.
The S&P financial index closed up 1.04 percent, paring earlier gains. Banks are seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries of tax reform.
The S&P consumer staples index rose 1.12 percent. Costco Wholesale Corp was its biggest percentage gainer, up 3.7 percent, after the retailer reported upbeat results.
CSX Transportation tumbled 7.6 percent.
The railroad said its chief executive Hunter Harrison was taking medical leave amid its controversial turnaround plan.
“Quadruple witching,” the simultaneous expiration of US options and futures contracts for stocks and indices, on Friday boosted volume to 10.7 billion shares, well above the 6.73 billion average over the past 20 trading days, and the highest since a year ago.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by a 2.24-to-1 ratio; on NASDAQ, a 2.32-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 37 new 52-week highs and one new low; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 85 new highs and 54 new lows.
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