Stock Futures Retreat From Records as Traders Gear Up for Senate GOP's Tax Plan

Stock futures were sharply lower on Thursday, Nov. 9, in a retreat from records ahead of the release of the Senate GOP's tax cut plans.

Senate Republicans are set to unveil their tax reform legislation on Thursday with billions in tax cuts for people and corporations, repeal of the federal deduction for state and local taxes, and a likely compression of the personal income tax brackets to four from seven.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber aims to debate the bill next week, while the House could pass its version around the same time. President Donald Trump's White House has pushed for tax cuts to pass by the end of the year. If that happens, it will be the first piece of major legislation since he assumed office in January.

The tax plan from the House, meanwhile, is nearing approval by the tax-writing committee after last-minute changes by Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Kevin Brady.

However, the House's Tax Cut and Jobs Act would increase the deficit by a massive amount, debt Trump and Republicans had pledged to reduce when they were back in power. The House's plan as written would raise the deficit by around $1.7 trillion over a decade, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday, Nov. 8. That puts it over the $1.5 trillion threshold the new budget requires for the bill to pass Senate rules.

President Donald Trump capped his visit to China on Thursday with a litany of new commercial contracts for some of America's biggest companies even as he continued to criticize trade relations between the world's two biggest economies. Around $250 billion in new and existing deals between U.S. and Chinese companies were touted by the president and his team as they departed from the third leg of Trump's 11-day Asia tour and celebrated the anniversary of his shock election victory last November.

Boeing Co. (BA - Get Report) , General Electric Co. (GE - Get Report) , Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM - Get Report) , Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS - Get Report) and Ford Motor Co. (F - Get Report) were just some of the names on the list of deals and contracts linked to the Trump visit and the broader ambitions of an economic policy he began trying to coordinate with China President Xi Jinping earlier this year.

Boeing was perhaps the biggest recipient of what China's Commerce Minister Zhong Shan called a "miracle" of trade deals, agreeing to terms on the sale of 300 jets with a list value of around $37 billion to China Aviation Suppliers Holding Co. Some of the orders, however, could have been blended into past agreements, analysts said, making it difficult to judge how much the announcement will change Boeing's order book.

Bloomberg

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