Wall Street closes lower on reports of gradual tax cut

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) - Wall Street closed lower Monday after reports of the Republican much-awaited corporate tax reform bill may gradually lower taxes.

House of Representatives' tax writers are considering to slowly lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent by 3 percentage points each year from 2018 through 2022.

That created a sell-off among investors, who have been waiting for lower tax rates to provide businesses with more revenues.

The Dow fell 85 points to end at 23,348 and the S&P lost eight points to 2,572.

The Nasdaq fell two points to finish trading at 6,698.

Retail giants took the biggest hit with Macy's losing 4.4 percent.

Shares of Target and Walmart lost 1.2 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to release a draft of the tax bill Wednesday.