Stock Indexes Wobble as White House Unveils Tax Plan

Stock indexes wobbled between modest gains and losses Wednesday, as the White House unveiled broad outlines of its plan to slash tax rates but left many of the details to be determined.

Anticipation for a big tax cut, along with looser regulations on businesses, have been two of the main drivers behind the stock market’s surge since November, when Republicans swept into Washington. The White House delivered a big number Wednesday, when officials said they hope to cut the top corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent.

But many specifics are still to be negotiated, such as how much it will affect the government’s budget deficit, and they will need to be hammered out with Congress. That left investors questioning exactly how much benefit will flow through to corporate profits, and how much stock prices should climb beyond what they already have.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped by 1.16 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 2,387.45. It had briefly climbed above its record closing level of 2,395.96 earlier in the day, only to give up its gains in the last minutes of trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 21.03 points, or 0.1 percent, to 20,975.09, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.27 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 6,025.23. Stocks of smaller companies did better, with the Russell 2000 index of small-caps rising 8.35, or 0.6 percent, to 1,419.43.

Any corporate tax cut would help boost profits for businesses, which would help justify the 11.6 percent surge for the S&P 500 since Election Day.

Tax policy isn’t the only thing pushing stocks higher, MacEwen said. Businesses are in the midst of reporting their profits for the first three months of the year, and they’ve largely been better than expected.

Edwards Lifesciences jumped to the largest gain in the S&P 500 Wednesday after it reported stronger revenue and profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company also raised its profit forecast for the year. Its stock jumped $10.38, or 10.5 percent, to $109.30.

Wynn Resorts rose $6.97, or 5.9 percent, to $125.19 after reporting revenue and profits that topped expectations.

Losing on Wednesday was U.S. Steel, which reported a loss for the first quarter and cut its profit forecast for the year. Its stock sank $8.33, or 26.8 percent, to $22.78.

In European stock markets, the French CAC 40 rose 0.2 percent, the FTSE 100 in London added 0.2 percent and the German DAX was close to flat. In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 jumped 1.1 percent, the South Korean Kospi rose 0.5 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5 percent.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 6 cents to settle at $49.62 a barrel. Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, fell 28 cents to $51.82.

Natural gas rose 10 cents to $3.14 per 1,000 cubic feet, wholesale gasoline fell 3 cents to $1.59 per gallon and heating oil fell 1 cent to $1.54 per gallon.

Gold fell $3 to $1,264.20 per ounce, silver lost 23 cents to $17.36 and copper rose 1 cent to $2.59 per pound.

The euro slipped to $1.0899 from $1.0939 late Tuesday, while the dollar rose to 111.38 Japanese yen from 111.09 yen. The British pound rose to $1.2843 from $1.2830.

U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 2.30 percent from 2.34 percent late Tuesday.