Lingering concerns about with the Repbulicans' proposed tax reform proposals will be passed before year end continued to weigh on investor sentiment and dragged the benchmark US indices into the red on Friday night, leaving both the Dow and S&P500 nursing their first two-week losing streak since August - Dow down -100-points or -0.43% and the broader S&P500 -0.26%, NASDAQ -0.15%, with Tesla (up +0.82%) helping offset some of the broader losses following the release of two new vehicles including a semiautonomous electric truck. Wal-mart (-down -2.16%) said it has already preordered 15 of Tesla's new heavy-duty electric vehicles. On the tax reform front, the focus is now on the Senate after the House of Representatives passed a sweeping bill to overhaul the tax code on Thursday. But the Republicans’ proposed legislation has several steps to go, with immediate hurdles ahead. A revised bill moving through the Senate Finance Committee differs in key respects from the House measure, and would delay the corporate-rate tax cut until 2019. A Reuters poll showed that nearly two-thirds of more than 60 economists said they were not confident the Trump administration would get the tax legislation passed this year. For the week, the Dow lost -0.27% and the S&P500 -0.13%, while the Nasdaq gained +0.63%. It is a shortened trading week this week, with US markets closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday (23 November).
