LIVE MARKETS-Wall Street goes flat as clock ticks down

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WALL STREET GOES FLAT AS CLOCK TICKS DOWN

U.S. stocks pared gains in the final minutes of trading on Thursday as investors balanced President Trump's jumbo-sized tax and spending bill, against fairly solid economic data and easing Treasury yields.

All three major U.S. stock deflated just before the closing bell. The S&P 500 .SPX and the Dow .DJI ended essentially unchanged, while megacap AI-associated momentum stocks helped buoy the tech-laden Nasdaq .IXIC, which finished modestly positive.

All three are currently on course to post weekly declines.

Communication services .SPLRCL, consumer discretionary .SPLRCD, and beleaguered commercial air carriers .SPCOMAIR did outperform on the day, as did the NYSE FANG+ index .NYFANG, comprised of tech-adjacent growth stocks.

Utilities .SPLRCU were a clear underperformer, dropping 1.4%.

Following its narrow 215 to 214 passage in the U.S. House of Representatives, President Trump's 1,000-page tax bill - estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to have a $3.5 trillion price tag - now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate for debate.

The move comes less than a week after Moody's U.S. sovereign downgrade, which was attributed to the country's ballooning debt.

A spate of generally solid economic data had investors pondering the likelihood of further rate cuts this year from the Fed, which appears fairly comfortable with their wait-and-see stance as tariff negotiations progress.

Yields on U.S. Treasuries eased after buyers returned to the fold following a recent selloff.

Friday promises to be a fairly light-volume day as market participants sail into the three-day Memorial Day weekend, with Commerce Department data on new home sales as the sole indicator on the docket.

Here's your closing snapshot:

(Stephen Culp)

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