New York – U.S. stocks sank on Friday after ABC News reported former national security adviser Michael Flynn was prepared to tell investigators that Donald Trump directed him to make contact with Russians during last year’s presidential elections.
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The report added to a volatile day of political news which saw shares fall initially in New York on concerns over the passage of Trump’s tax bill through the Senate.
Reuters has not verified the ABC News report, which cited a Flynn confidant. Flynn pleaded guilty after being charged for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States.
“If it turns out to be an accurate report, and ultimately Flynn implicates Trump as having colluded with Russia to rig the election, obviously that creates a lot of turmoil,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for brokerage Charles Schwab.
“But it’s too early to say.”
Stock movements in recent days have mirrored the news out of Washington, with a surprise endorsement for the tax plan from Republican Senator John McCain helping the Dow break above the 24,000 mark for the first time on Thursday.
At 11:28 a.m. ET (1628 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average < .DJI> was down 223.55 points, or 0.92 percent, at 24,048.8.
The S&P 500 < .SPX> was down 1.1 percent at 2,618.85 and the Nasdaq Composite < .IXIC> 1.45 percent at 6,774.44.
“The market is reacting to this ABC report that Trump can be incriminated by Flynn’s testimony,” said Mizuho strategist Antoine Bouvet.
“If it is true, then the market should be pricing a lower likelihood of Trump’s economic agenda being implemented. But it’s hard to tell how much substance there is behind it at this stage, at best its a distraction from the tax reforms.”
I don’t believe down 1/2 percent qualifies as rocking wall street
Drip, drip, drip… Soon to be torrent! Adios, Uneducated Archy…
all the gains om wall street are a pipe dream
It’s all over for President Trumpanzee. Time to call it quits, Uneducated Archy. Please pick up your last paycheck and remember, it’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in an orange colored basket.
It’s hilarious the celebration of the media as if Muller discovered some new stuff, this that Flynn had contact with Russia was known this was the reason he had to resign, what triggered the whole investigation to begin with, it was his lying to Pence that he had no contact with Russia that ended up costing him his job, so now after almost a year of hundreds of millions of dollars on investigations we back to square one. We already knew that Flynn lied to the FBI, great success Mr Miller I must tell you go Muller go.
So now let’s understand what’s happening
we have Flynn officially testifing that he made contact with Russia on the request of president Trump,
meanwhile he was forced out of his job for lying to the white House when he claimed he did not make contact with Russia, now if the president told him to make contact with Russia do you think he would have a reason to lie about it to vice president Pence, and do I think after being forced out for that lie he would not have come out and said are u crazy? you the president told me to do this and now your firing me.
Ha. It was fake news by ABC. Nothing more to see. Poor Hoshomer