Yesterday there were seven Senators leaning towards a no (two strongly leaning) on the tax bill and the Dow dropped 77 points.  Today it seems all seven have had their concerns assuaged and are now either leaning or committed to yes.  Investors responded with great relief and enthusiasm pushing the index once again to a triple digit gain.  

Wall Street sees lower corporate tax rates as boosting shareholder payouts which in turn will boost equities, consumer confidence and consumer spending.  (But hasn’t this been happening all along with so many quarters of earnings beating forecasts?)  The big deficit is the lack of details as the final bill only became available hours before and most in Congress will be voting next week without having had time to really digest it.  As one expert said today, “We don’t know how stimulative it will actually be.”  Volume was huge today but it wasn’t because of this new development but rather because of quadruple witching, so we won’t know the real impact on volume until Monday. 

fri  DECEMBER 15, 2017 / 4:34 pM

Wall Street closes at records with tax overhaul in sight

Sinead Carew

DJ: 24,651.74  +143.08       NAS: 6,936.58  +80.06         S&P: 2,675.81  +23.80     12/15

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street’s three major indexes climbed to record closing highs on Friday with broad-based gains as a long-awaited bill to cut corporate tax rates looked like it would win enough support from lawmakers to pass.  U.S. congressional Republicans were expected to release final details of their plan late on Friday, with decisive votes planned for next week after lawmakers who had previously criticized the bill started to voice their support.

Republican Senator Bob Corker joined Senator Marco Rubio in signaling support in the late afternoon. Rubio had criticized the initial proposal, saying it did not give enough tax relief to working families, while Corker, had expressed concerned about the bill’s impact on the federal deficit.

The bill is expected to drop corporate tax rates to 21 percent from 35 percent and some investors are betting that companies will put most of the savings toward a boost in shareholder payouts.

“It’s meaningful in terms of its impact on shareholders. You’re going to see an increase in stock buybacks, maybe some dividend payouts,” said David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Boston.  “By and large there’s a high correlation between higher equity prices and consumer confidence and consumer spending. Some translates into rising consumer sentiment and better feelings about job security,” he said.  However, as the tax package has evolved, it has tilted increasingly toward benefiting businesses and the wealthy, a trend that concerned some lawmakers.

The S&P was up 1 percent after Corker announced his support, but couldn’t sustain those levels as investors awaited tax bill details, according to Brian Battle, director of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago.  “We don’t know how stimulative it will actually be,” said Battle. “There shouldn’t be any surprises. The stuff they were apart on seems manageable.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 143.08 points, or 0.58 percent, to 24,651.74, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 23.8 points, or 0.90 percent, to 2,675.81 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 80.06 points, or 1.17 percent, to 6,936.58.  The S&P 500 and the Dow closed higher for the fourth week in a row, while the Nasdaq saw its first weekly gain out of three. 

The S&P’s Energy index was the only one of its 11 majors in the red with a 0.03-percent dip. Technology .SPLRCT and Healthcare .SPXHC indexes led the advance with 1.24 and 1.17 percent gains, respectively.  The S&P financial index .SPSY closed up 1.04 percent, paring earlier gains. Banks are seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries of tax reform.  The S&P consumer staples index .SPLRCS rose 1.12 percent. Costco (COST.O) was its biggest percentage gainer, up 3.7 percent, after the retailer reported upbeat results.  CSX (CSX.O) tumbled 7.6 percent. The railroad said its Chief Executive Hunter Harrison was taking medical leave amid its controversial turnaround plan. 

“Quadruple witching,” the simultaneous expiration of U.S. options and futurescontracts for stocks and indexes, boosted volume to 10.7 billion shares, well above the 6.73 billion average over the last 20 trading days, and the highest since a year ago.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.24-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.32-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 37 new 52-week highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 85 new highs and 54 new lows.