Wall Street falls on tax bill worries; media stocks climb

Wall Street declined on Friday as the markets grappled with concerns over delays in corporate tax cuts but a rise in media stocks helped limit the slide.

Walt Disney rose 2.9 percent as the promise of a new film trilogy overshadowed weak quarterly results and struggles at the media company. The stock was the biggest boost on the Dow.

Disney held talks in recent weeks about buying some of Twenty-First Century Fox`s film and TV businesses, according to media reports.

Twenty-First Century Fox, Time Warner Inc, Comcast and News Corp were all up between 1.4 percent and 6.1 percent and were among the top boosts on the S&P and the Nasdaq.

Senate Republicans have unveiled a tax-cut plan that would delay lowering corporate rate to 20 percent by a year and provide small-business owners with a deduction rather than a special business rate.

The Senate Republicans` version of the bill differs markedly on corporate, business and individual tax cuts from legislation detailed by their counterparts in the House of Representatives.

The S&P 500 index has surged more than 20 percent since the 2016 presidential election, fueled by Donald Trump`s promises.

All three major indexes were on track to end lower for the week, with the S&P and the Dow on track to post weekly losses after eight straight weeks of gains.

"When you get to the end of the earnings season, the focus shifts from the micro to the macro, in this case, the tax bill," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.

"The concerns over the differences between the Senate and House version of the tax bill is causing some consolidation in the market. It`s a pretty tight time frame for the passage of the bill and I think it will be an event for the first quarter."

At 10:47 a.m. ET (1447 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 43.85 points, or 0.19 percent, at 23,418.09, the S&P 500 was down 6.28 points, or 0.24 percent, at 2,578.34.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 15.06 points, or 0.22 percent, at 6,734.99.

Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, with the healthcare index`s 1.17 percent fall leading the decliners.

Earnings for the third quarter are expected to have climbed 8 percent, compared with expectations of a 5.9 percent rise at the start of October, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of Nvidia were up 5.5 percent after the chipmaker`s revenue forecast for the current quarter topped estimates.

Nordstrom fell 2.1 percent after its quarterly same-store sales came in below expectations, while J.C. Penney was up 12.7 percent after the department store chain reported third-quarter same-store sales that were twice what it had estimated.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,432 to 1,244. On the Nasdaq, 1,455 issues rose and 1,209 fell.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)