US equity markets lower last Friday albeit closing well off session lows, with a steep sell-off induced by some misleading reporting by ABC News around former US national security adviser Michael Flynn reaching a plea agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is overseeing the probe of Russian tampering with the U.S. presidential election. The report saw ABC's chief investigative reporter Brian Ross suspended for four weeks - Dow settled -41-points or -0.17% lower, snapping a five-session winning streak albeit paring earlier, steeper losses that saw the index down over >350-points. The broader S&P500 slipped -0.20%, with industrial stocks the biggest decliners of the day (down -1.2%), while Energy stocks were a notable outperformer. Also weighing on investment sentiment was the Senate Republicans delaying voting on their tax bill as they re-worked the legislation. However, the Senate Republicans narrowly passed the the bill in the early hours of Saturday morning with a 51-49 vote. Following the vote, President Trump took to Twitter and typed that the Republicans were "one step closer to delivering MASSIVE tax cuts" and said he wanted to sign a bill by Christmas. The competing House and Senate tax bills now go before a committee who will attempt to reconcile the differences and formulate a single bill acceptable to both houses. In stock specific news, Automotive stocks were mixed after the latest November automotive sales data. Number 1 US automaker General Motors Co fell -0.7% after reporting its sales fell 2.9% in November, with sales to consumers flat against the same month in 2016. However, Ford Motor Co rose +0.48% after posting 6.7% increase in sales in November, with fleet sales up nearly 26% and retail sales 1.3% higher than in November 2016. The technology-centric NASDAQ -0.38%, with Amazon.com Inc down -1.22% after a CNBC report last Thursday that said the on-line giant was holding preliminary talks with generic drugmakers including Mylan (up +4.35%) and Novartis AG (+0.29%) unit Sando as the company contemplates entering the pharmacy business. Despite a soft opening to December the Dow and S&P500 nonetheless enjoyed a strong week overall. Indeed, the Dow gained +2.9% for the week - its largest weekly advance since December 2016. The S&P500 recorded a +1.5% weekly gain for its best weekly performance since September. Both the Dow and the S&P500 have risen in 10 of the past 12 weeks. However, the Nasdaq fell -0.6% for the week, its biggest weekly decline since the week ended 8 September.
