Tech continued to lose ground today as profit-takers dominated the trading pushing the Dow down 109 points.  The AMT on the tax bill will be a major point of contention between the Senate and the House, the Senate wanting it kept, the House wanting it gone, so though investor sentiment remains that tax reform will get done, it’s still likely to be quite a fight.  Because of the unusually high volume of the past few days, today’s lower volume of 6.9 billion was still enough to stay slightly above the 4-week average of 6.7 billion. 

tue  DECEMBER 5, 2017 / 4:21 pM

Tech rally burns out, leaves Wall Street lower

Noel Randewich

DJ:  24,180.64  -109.41       NAS:  6,762.21  -13.15         S&P:  2,629.57  -9.87        12/5

(Reuters) - Wall Street fell on Tuesday as a technology rebound lost steam and Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) shares dipped, while investors assessed how a Republican U.S. tax overhaul would impact corporate earnings.  The S&P 500 fell for a third straight session, a streak not seen since early August, trimming the index’s rally this year to 17 percent. 

Buoyed by a 2.53 percent increase in Electronic Arts Inc (EA.O), the S&P 500 information technology index .SPLRCT ended up 0.21 percent, but pared earlier gains of as much as 1.39 percent.  The year’s top-performing sector was still down nearly 4 percent over the past week, with investors shifting money to banks, retailers and other stocks seen as likely to benefit the most from tax cuts promised by U.S. President Donald Trump. 

The bill passed on Saturday by Republican senators included a last-minute change retaining the corporate alternative minimum tax, or AMT, which had initially been removed.  That put Senate Republicans on a collision course with Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, whose own tax bill repealed the corporate AMT and who are already calling for the tax to be eliminated in the final legislation. Including the AMT could negate parts of the bill seen as beneficial to tech companies and other corporations.  “Sentiment still remains that tax reform will get done and we will get a 20 percent tax rate, and that will boost earnings significantly,” said Lindsey Bell, an investment strategist at CFRA Research.  Such a tax rate cut could boost S&P 500 earnings next year by an extra 9 percent, Bell said.

All three major indexes moved sharply lower late in the session.  “You don’t want things to slip away at the end of the year, so it’s tempting to take things off the table, maybe buy something that’s been beaten up,” said Frank Gretz, a analyst for Wellington Shields & Co, a brokerage in New York.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI lost 0.45 percent to end at 24,180.64 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX ended down 0.37 percent at 2,629.57.  The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.19 percent to 6,762.21.  Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors fell, led by losses in telecom services .SPLRCL and utilities .SPLRCU. 

Shares of Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA.O) slipped 0.30 percent after a report that Walt Disney (DIS.N) was in the lead to acquire much of Fox’s media empire, though rival suitor Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) remained in contention.  Disney shares fell 2.72 percent and Comcast slipped 1.98 percent.  McDonald’s (MCD.N) rose 1.37 percent, providing the biggest boost to the Dow, after Jefferies upgraded the stock to a “buy” rating.  Toll Brothers Inc (TOL.N) fell 7.36 percent after the luxury homebuilder’s profit and revenue missed analysts’ expectations as it sold homes at prices lower than its own estimates. 

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.80-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.83-to-1 ratio favored decliners.  About 6.9 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, just above the 6.7 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.