Wall Street closes lower on healthcare bill uncertainty and tech sell-off
Major equity indexes recorded heavy losses on Tuesday as the uncertainty surrounding the healthcare bill vote hurt the general market sentiment and big tech companies dropped sharply.
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After an NBC story, quoting the chamber's No. 2 Republican, John Corny, said that the U.S. Senate would push ahead with a vote this week on a healthcare bill to repeal Obamacare, Republican Senator Lee said that he would oppose the motion to begin the debate on the bill.
“The market likes certainty, and now there’s uncertainty," Peter Costa, president of trading firm Empire Executions in New York, told Reuters. "What is this going to look like when this gets out of the next iteration? That uncertainty I think is just having people pause a little bit."
On the other hand, tech giant Google's shares lost nearly 2% after EU antitrust regulators issued a record $2.7 billion fine. "Google's strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn't just about attracting customers. It wasn't just about making its product better than those of its rivals. Instead, Google has abused its market dominance as a search engine," European Union competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a press conference.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 98.89 points, or 0.46%, to 21,310.66, the S&P 500 dropped 15.5 points, or 0.65%, to 2,419.38 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 100.53 points, or 1.61%, to 6,146.62.
Headlines from the U.S. session:
- EUR/USD reaches 10-month highs above 1.13 as bullish momentum remains strong
- US Dollar Index drops sharply, eyes lowest close since October
- US: Home Price appreciation moderates just a bit - Wells Fargo
- Fed's Yellen: I have found respect for the independence of the Fed from U.S. Treasury
- U.S. Commerce Sec: Trump administration hopes to provide a larger share of EU imports
- Fed's Yellen: We believe appropriate to raise rates gradually
- U.S. President Trump invites all Republican senators to the White House at 20:00 GMT
- Fed's Fischer warns to expect decreasing risk appetite
- Fed’s Harker: With another 25bp rate hike would still have appropriate accomodative policy