US close: Stocks end mostly lower amid doubts about Trump agenda

US stocks ended mostly lower on Monday, with the Dow notching its longest losing streak since August 2011 amid growing doubts about President Donald Trump’s ability to push through his economic agenda.

The Dow ended down for the eighth session in a row, off 0.2% to 20,550.98, while the S&P 500 fell 0.1% to 2,341.59 but the Nasdaq nudged up 0.2% to close at 5,840.37. Despite the mostly negative close, indices ended off their lows.

Investors were growing increasingly concerned that Trump may not be able to deliver on his economic policies to spend $1trn on infrastructure, cut taxes and loosen financial regulation, after Republican leaders withdrew their support for his healthcare bill on Friday, which was aimed at repealing and replacing Obamacare.

The dollar slumped across the board after the failed passage of the bill. The greenback was down 0.7% against the pound to 0.7958, 0.6% weaker versus the euro at 0.9204 and 0.6% lower against the yen at 110.66.

CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said: “The continued growing pains of the new administration as well as the inability to generate a consensus to deliver a new health care bill has taken the heat out of the recent rally, in the past few weeks and Friday’s capitulation appears to have lowered the temperature further, as markets start to catch a cold.

“Having overseen a strong rally in stock markets over the past few months the new US president is learning a hard lesson in the differences between campaign promises and the ability to deliver them in a difficult political environment.”

Meanwhile, oil prices recovered from earlier lows. Brent Crude was flat at $50.79 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was down 0.3% at $47.79, after an unscheduled OPEC meeting over the weekend, where the cartel of major producers announced that they would stick to their plan to reduce production and said cuts could be extended up to six months.

On the corporate front, Apple edged up after a Chinese court overturned a ruling against the technology giant over iPhone patents.

Snapchat parent Snap rallied after RBC Capital Markets initiated the stock at ‘overweight’ with a target price of $31, while JP Morgan initiated coverage at ‘neutral’ with a price target of $24.