U.S. stocks close lower after tax plan unveiled

U.S. stocks closed down Wednesday after the Trump administration announced the much anticipated tax plan.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 20.48 points, or 0.10 percent, to 20975.64. The S&P 500 erased 1.14 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,387.47. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.27 points, or less than 0.01 percent, to 6,025.23.

The tax plan would reduce the number of personal income tax brackets from seven to three, and would cut the top individual income tax rate to 35 percent from 39.6 percent, Gary Cohn, director of the White House National Economic Council (NEC), said at a press briefing at the White House.

"We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do something really big," Cohn said, noting President Donald Trump has made tax reform a priority and the Republican-controlled Congress also wants to get it done.

At the same time, the plan would cut the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Investors were also accessing a batch of quarterly earnings reports.

Dow component Boeing reported its first-quarter earnings before the opening bell. The company's earnings per share increased to 2.34 U.S. dollars while the revenue decreased to 21.0 billion dollars.

Shares of Twitter ended the trading day at 15.82 dollars per share, soared 7.91 percent, after it reported better-than-expected earnings after several quarters of disappointing results.

Stocks soared in the previous session on upbeat earnings and economic data, with Nasdaq soaring above 6,000, hitting an all-time high. Endit