World stocks slip as tax jitters sap confidence

NEW YORK (AFP) – Global stock markets retreated Friday, extending the previous session's losses, as uncertainty over US President Donald Trump's muchvaunted tax cuts and lackluster corporate earnings took their toll on investor confidence.

At the close of the trading day in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average snapped an eight-week winning streak, closing 0.2 percent lower, while the broad S&P 500 and techdominated Nasdaq were essentially flat.

Senate Republicans on Thursday released a tax plan that would put off promised steep corporate tax cuts for a year, and there was little in the way of US economic data to move markets in any direction as the quarterly earnings season winds down.

The Dow and Nasdaq have soared about 30 percent since Trump's 2016 election victory on hopes of slashed taxes and regulation. But Phil Davis of PSW investments told AFP the prospect of delayed tax cuts had taken much of the wind out of Wall Street's sails.