Wall Street stocks fell early Wednesday as markets monitored congressional activity on US President Donald Trump’s tax cut proposal, while Treasury bond yields pushed higher.

The yield on the 30-year US Treasury bond surged back above five percent following reports that House Republican leaders agreed to a bigger tax deduction for highly-taxed US states — a move that could boost the proposal’s odds in Congress but likely also increases the deficit.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.9 percent at 42,315.44.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.5 percent to 5,911.90, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.3 percent at 19,077.10.

Activity on Capitol Hill has taken center stage this week, while top finance leaders from the G7 group of nations gather in Canada for talks touching on the war in Ukraine and trade negotiations in the wake of Trump’s tariff onslaught.

Among individual companies, big-box chain Target slid 6.8 percent following another disappointing earnings release.

The chain announced a number of leadership changes to “build more speed and agility in how we operate,” said Chief Executive Brian Cornell.

AFP