Stocks Opened Mostly Higher and Turned Lower

U.S. stocks opened mostly higher and turned lower on Tuesday, as investors look to an expected vote by U.S. lawmakers on Donald Trump’s signature tax reform bill. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 41.23 points, or 0.17%, to 24,750.97. The S&P 500 was down 1.42 points, or 0.05%, to 2,688.74. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 12.77 points, or 0.18%, to 6,981.98.

Oil prices rose modestly on Tuesday as the market remained broadly range-bound ahead of U.S. inventory data and the expiry of the January West Texas Intermediate contract. WTI crude was up 26 cents, or 0.5%, at $57.42 a barrel, while February Brent rose 12 cents, or 0.1%, to $63.53 a barrel.

The final tax bill offers much of what large companies hoped to gain from the Republican overhaul: the billboard corporate rate was knocked down, cuts were accelerated and key credits were preserved.

Groundbreaking on single-family homes proceeded in November at the strongest pace in a decade, driving U.S. housing starts to a faster-than-estimated rate, government figures showed Tuesday. Single-family starts jumped 5.3% to 930,000, highest since Sept. 2007; South and West regions also were 10-year highs.