Stocks were little changed on Friday, while a scrapped proposal to speed up the Bitcoin network sent the cryptocurrency lower.

  • Dow: 23,422.21, -39.73, (-0.17%)
  • S&P 500: 2,582.30, -2.32, (-0.09%)
  • Nasdaq: 6,750.94, +0.89, (+0.01%)

1. The giant Senate tax bill barely squeaked by a critical test. The Joint Committee on Taxation, the nonpartisan Congressional research service, said the Senate’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) would add $1.4957 trillion to the national debt between 2018 and 2027. Under the Senate rules, the TCJA can only add $1.5 trillion over that time period. This means that the massive plan scrapes by the limit by just about $300 million.

2. The stunning allegations against Roy Moore could throw the GOP’s tax cut push into even more chaos. First and foremost, the allegations are serious in nature on their own and have raised questions about Moore’s fitness for office. In addition to the seriousness of the allegations, experts and analysts say that it could cause some serious problems for the GOP’s recent tax reform push.

3. Netflix slid after Disney outlined its plan to overthrow the streaming video king. Netflix’s stock was down 2.07% at $189.89 a share on Friday before reversing some of its losses later in the afternoon. Its shares have a tendency to slide every time Disney talks publicly about its new service, which is expected to start in 2019 when Netflix’s contract for Disney content runs out.

4. UBS says it can't find compelling reasons why gold would surge anytime soon. Reasons to be bullish have now changed, UBS strategist Joni Teves said in a note on Thursday. The dollar is likely to rally against key currencies including the Japanese yen, which, like gold, traders buy as a safe-haven asset. But against others like the euro, Teves expects the dollar to continue to weaken.

5. The number of men behind bars in the US is mind-blogging. "The growing number of incarcerations has left more people with criminal records, making it difficult for them to reenter the workplace," Bank of America's Michelle Meyer and Anna Zhou said. "Digging into the details by demographic cohort, we find that men make up nearly 93% of all prisoners, of which one third are between the ages of 25 and 34."

6. Nike is trying a massive transformation in order to stay relevant. Nike is hoping that a new focus on innovation will help it fight back against this competition and regain its crown as king of the sneaker and sportswear markets.

7. Bitcoin dives below $7,000. The crypto-currency has been on a wild ride since a plan to help the red-hot coin scale was scraped.

ADDITIONALLY:

UBS: The 2 biggest stock market fears are overblown.

Isaac Newton was a genius, but even he lost millions in the stock market.

21 everyday phrases that come straight from Shakespeare's plays.