US open: Stocks flat as traders wait for progress on tax reforms
Wall Street was trading little changed in a light day in terms of economic data.
At 1643 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrials Average was off by 0.06% or 13.64 points at 23,543.57 while the S&P 500 was dipping 0.06% or 1.58 points to 2,589.09.
In parallel, the Nasdaq Composite was flat at 6,767.96.
From a sector standpoint, the best performing areas of the market were: Toys (4.13%), Leisure goods (3.51%) and Drug retailers (2.27%).
Commenting on the situation in markets, David Madden at CMC Markets, sauid: "US indices are slightly in the red as the bulls take a bit of a breather. There are ongoing worries that Donald Trump’s tax proposals could be held up. The prospect of a pro-business tax regime has been a factor in the bullish run that US stocks have been enjoying lately, and the talk of a delay has taken some heat out of the market."
For his part, Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said: "While many may claim that Trump’s achievements to date equate to very little given his difficulties repealing and replacing Obamacare, slower than expected progress on tax reform and minimal detail on fiscal stimulus, investors have clearly not been deterred as is evident by staggering gains in US stocks.
"Of course, much of this may still be conditional on the President delivering on the latter two in particular and some is also attributable to the rally in global equity markets over the same period, but the Trump trade is clearly still alive and well."
In corporate news, Snapchat parent Snap plunged on the back of disappointing results late on Tuesday, despite reports that Chinese internet company Tencent had taken a 10% stake in the company.
Health insurer Humana were also moving lower a day after it lifted its adjusted earnings guidance for 2017 and announced plans to cut around 6% of its workforce.
Going the other way, Take-Two Interactive Software was rocketing after the video games distributor's second-quarter revenue beat estimates and it lifted its full-year forecast for adjusted revenues.
Shares in biotechnology group Regeneron were heading higher after it posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit earlier on Wednesday.
Stock of LendingClub on the other hand was off sharply after the company said it expected to report a fourth-quarter loss, while Fossil shares were down more than 12% in the wake of its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday.