While you were sleeping: Concern on US tax reform, Merck

Tuesday 31st October 2017

Wall Street slid amid concern about the highly-anticipated tax reform by the Trump administration, while shares of Merck dropped amid disappointment about one of its key drugs.

House tax writers are discussing a gradual phase-in for the corporate tax-rate cut that President Donald Trump and Republican leaders want—a schedule that would have the rate reach 20 percent in 2022, Bloomberg reported, citing a member of the chamber’s tax-writing committee and a person familiar with the discussions.

“That headline just caused bit more weakness,” Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas, told Reuters. “The optimism about tax reforms and how favourable it might be was very high.”

In 2.32pm trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index slid 0.2 percent. In 2.17pm trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 0.3 percent.

Earlier in the day, the Nasdaq had touched a record high of 6,727.39.

The Dow fell as slides in shares of Merck and those of General Electric, recently down 5.6 percent and 2.5 percent respectively, outweighed advances in shares of Apple and those of Travelers, recently up 2.1 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.

Merck shares fell after several analysts downgraded the stock amid concern about its key drug, Keytruda.

“We are downgrading MRK shares to Equal Weight from Overweight based on diminished upside potential from Keytruda, which is by far Merck’s biggest value driver,” Barclays analyst Geoff Meacham said in his downgrade note, Reuters reported.

Shares of Apple gained amid reports of solid demand for its iPhone X, for which the company began taking orders last Friday.

US Treasuries rose after Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter, that Trump is likely to pick Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell as the next head of the central bank.

Trump, who is considering Powell, current Fed Chair Janet Yellen and three others for the top central bank job, will announce his decision on Thursday, a White House official said separately, according to Reuters.

Europe’s Stoxx 600 Index finished the day with a 0.1 percent increase from the previous close. Germany’s DAX Index added 0.1 percent.

In Germany, a government report showed consumer prices rose an annual 1.5 percent in October, which was weaker than economists had predicted.

The data arrives just after the European Central Bank last week said it will ease its asset purchases to 30 billion euros a month from January, while keeping them at the current monthly pace of 60 billion euros until the end of this year.

The latest euro-zone inflation data are due on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the UK’s FTSE 100 Index fell 0.2 percent, while France’s CAC 40 Index inched 0.01 percent lower.

(BusinessDesk)

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