U.S. stocks opened firmly lower on Thursday as Wall Street awaited the Senate version of a GOP-led tax bill, with the investors appearing to wager that the prospects for passage of reforms to tax policy soon were low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 132 points, or 0.6%, 23,432, threatening to fall the most since Sept. 5, the S&P 500 index slipped 16 points, or 0.5% at 2,581, while the Nasdaq Composite Index were down 1% at 6,721. All three benchmarks closed at a records simultaneously on Wednesday, but only booked slight gains in doing so. In economic news, weekly jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S., increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 239,000 in the week ended Nov. 4, the Labor Department said. However, the levels still reflect a labor market that is healthy. In corporate news, Kohl’s Corp. shares tumbled after lowering its 2018 earnings outlook and reporting quarterly profit that was slightly weaker than expected, though earnings exceeded estimates. Sage Therapeutics Inc. shares surged after the company said its postpartum-depression therapy has positive results in two late-stage clinical trials.
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