Stocks Opened Lower on Tax Reform Uncertainty

U.S. stocks opened lower on Monday amid growing uncertainty over a U.S. tax reform deal. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 37.99 points, or 0.16%, to 23,384.22. The S&P 500 lost 4.59 points, or 0.18%, to 2,577.71. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 15.54 points, or 0.23%, to 6,735.40.

Oil was largely steady on Monday, trapped between a bullish push from tension in the Middle East and downward pressure from evidence of rising U.S. production. Brent crude futures were down 17 cents at $63.35 a barrel by 10:02 GMT, having gained 14 percent so far this month. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude eased 6 cents to $56.68.

General Electric Co (GE) chopped its quarterly dividend in half on Monday. GE cut the dividend to 12 cents per share from 24 cents starting in December, which is expected to save the company about $4 billion in cash annually.

Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm Inc on Monday rejected rival Broadcom Ltd’s $103-billion takeover bid, saying the offer “dramatically” undervalued the U.S. company.

Brookfield Property Partners L.P. (BPY_UN.TO, BPY ) said that it made a non-binding proposal to acquire all the outstanding shares of common stock of GGP Inc. (GGP), other than those shares currently held by BPY and its affiliates (representing about 34% of the outstanding shares).