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markets, click or type LIVE/ in a news window.)
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Indexes up: Dow 0.12%, S&P 500 0.14%, Nasdaq 0.64%
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Bill passes in 215-214 vote, sent to US Senate
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30-year Treasury yields at fresh 19-month high
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Alphabet hits nearly three-month high
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Solar stocks fall on fears of subsidies ending
(Updates with afternoon trading levels)
By Shashwat Chauhan and Kanchana Chakravarty
May 22 (Reuters) -
The S&P 500 struggled for direction on Thursday after the
U.S. House of Representatives passed President Donald Trump's
tax and spending bill, expected to burden the federal government
with trillions of dollars in extra debt, by a razor-thin margin.
If what Trump has described as a "big, beautiful bill"
becomes law, it is expected to add about $3.8 trillion to the
country's $36.2 trillion debt in the next decade, according to
the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The bill now faces a test in the Republican-controlled
Senate and will fulfill much of Trump's populist agenda if
passed, delivering new tax breaks on tips and car loans and
boosting U.S. military expenditure.
"It seems pretty clear that, in its present form, the
legislation is certainly not going to improve the budget deficit
and could make it substantially worse," said Steve Sosnick,
chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers.
Longer-dated Treasury yields hovered near multi-month highs,
with those on the 10-year benchmark at 4.58% and the
30-year Treasury yield at a new 19-month high.
At 11:46 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
rose 52.01 points, or 0.12%, to 41,912.45, the S&P 500
gained 8.17 points, or 0.14%, to 5,852.78, and the Nasdaq
Composite added 120.56 points, or 0.64%, to 18,993.21.
Eight of the 11 S&P sub-sectors traded lower, with utilities
and energy among top decliners, down more than
2% and 1% respectively.
Most megacap and growth stocks inched up. Alphabet
led gains with a 3.3% rise, touching a nearly
three-month high.
Shares of solar energy companies including First Solar ( FSLR )
fell more than 6% as Trump's tax bill is expected to
end a number of green-energy subsidies.
Snowflake jumped more than 12% after the cloud
computing firm raised its fiscal-year 2026 product revenue
forecast.
All three main stock indexes had witnessed their biggest
single-day percentage drops in a month on Wednesday as Treasury
yields spiked on worries about mounting U.S. debt.
U.S. stocks have had a solid month so far, with the S&P 500
climbing more than 15% from its April lows, when Trump's
reciprocal tariffs roiled global markets.
A pause in tariffs, a temporary U.S.-China trade truce and
tame inflation data have pushed equities higher, although the
S&P 500 is still about 3% off record highs.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller said in an interview to Fox
Business that central bank rate cuts would be on the menu if the
Trump administration's tariff agenda settles on the lower side
of the ledger.
On the data front, U.S. business activity picked up in May,
while separate data showed jobless claims dropped last week,
suggesting that the economy maintained a steady pace of
employment growth.
Traders currently see at least two 25-basis-point rate cuts
by the end of the year, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.95-to-1
ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.05-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and nine new
lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 34 new highs and 83
new lows.