Investing.com – Wall Street was lower on Tuesday after opening higher as Congress prepares to pass the biggest tax overhaul in 30 years.
The S&P 500 fell just over two and a half points or 0.10% as of 10:40 AM ET (15:40 GMT) while the Dow composite decreased 33 points or 0.14% and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite was down 19 points or 0.28%. (19 0.28)
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the highly anticipated tax bill at 1:30 PM ET (18:30 GMT) on Tuesday with the Senate expected to vote later in the week. The tax bill would cut corporate taxes to 21% from 35%, which some say would encourage companies to spend more, boosting the economy.
Technology stocks were mostly down in morning trading. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 1.10% while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was down 1.11% and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) slipped 1.19%. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) inched down 0.41% while luxury car maker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) decreased 0.67%.
Meanwhile semiconductor Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) was up 1.18% while Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) gained 1.30% and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) rose 0.87%.
In Europe stocks were mixed. In Germany the DAX fell 27 points or 0.21% while France’s CAC 40 decreased 17 points or 0.32% and in London the FTSE 100 gained 15 points or 0.21%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 rose 11 points or 0.10% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 was down 11 points or 0.42%.
In commodities, gold futures were flat at $1,265.50 a troy ounce while crude oil futures increased 0.52% to 57.52 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.08% to 93.16.