Stocks stay steady for 4th day

Health care, banks drop in subdued trading ahead of three-day holiday

Stocks finished slightly lower Friday in subdued trading ahead of a three-day holiday weekend. Health care companies and banks slipped.

President Donald Trump signed the Republican-backed tax bill into law, but for the fourth day in a row, stocks didn’t move much. They had made strong gains in recent weeks as investors became more sure the $1.5 trillion package would pass.

High-dividend stocks made small gains even as bond yields remained near their recent highs. The price of bitcoin fell as much as 30 percent after making gigantic gains throughout the year.

The price of bitcoin was down about 8 percent in the late afternoon after trading in a gigantic range between $10,834 and $15,830 during the day, according to the tracking site CoinDesk.

“The bubble is really in the conversation about bitcoin at this point,” said Brett Ewing, chief market strategist of First Franklin. “If you were to go out and talk to 100 people you know, all of them know about bitcoin ... but how many of them actually own it?”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 1.23 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 2,683.34. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 28.23 points, or 0.1 percent, to 24,754.06. The Nasdaq composite fell 5.40 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,959.96. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks dipped 4.18 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,542.93.

Stocks finished higher for the fifth week in a row.

Markets will be closed Monday in observance of Christmas, and with just four days of trading left in 2017, stocks are on pace to finish every month of the year with gains, when dividends are included.

Nike slumped $1.48, or 2.3 percent, to $63.29. The company had a strong quarter overall, as its profit and sales both beat Wall Street projections. But Nike’s North American business continued to struggle.

Banks took modest losses. They’ve done far better than the rest of the market as the tax bill has been at the forefront of investors’ minds and interest rates have moved higher.

The S&P 1500 banking index, which tracks small, medium and large-sized banks, has soared 9 percent over the last month. The S&P 1500 is up about 3 percent over that time.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 11 cents to $58.47 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, rose 35 cents to $65.25 a barrel in London.