Financials Down As Traders 'Sell The News' On Tax Bill - Financials Roundup

Banks, lenders and other financial companies ticked down as traders took a "buy the rumor, sell the news" approach to the passage of a tax bill by the House of Representatives.

Analysts at brokerage Barclays said the financial sector was among those who stood to gain the most from corporate tax cuts, because many financial businesses' operations are primarily U.S.-based.

A survey of institutional investors by analysts at brokerage Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research indicated most money managers expect further economic and stock-market gains in 2018. "Goldilocks remains the consensus view for the global economy, with 54% of investors surveyed expecting above-trend growth and below-trend inflation in the next 12 months, just 2 percentage points lower than last month's record high," said the BofA analysts.

With bitcoin prices up several thousand percentage points for the year to date, many institutional investors believe the risks of a flight from the digital currency are rising. "Long Bitcoin is considered the most crowded trade for the second time this year," said the BofA analysts.

Waymo, Alphabet/Google's self-driving car unit, plans to tap insurance-technology startup Trov Inc. to provide coverage for passengers of a ride-hailing service.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 19, 2017 17:11 ET (22:11 GMT)