Mixed start for Wall Street amid tax hike worries

It was a mixed picture for Wall Street on Friday morning as investors continued to worry about the potential of US tax hikes. In the early minutes of trading, the S&P 500 was up 0.23% at 4,144 and the Nasdaq rose 0.42% to 13,876. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the negative outlier, down 0.1% at 33,783. Meanwhile, the downturn in crypto markets continued to impact shares in crypto trading platform Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN), which was down 2.3% at US$287.23 in early trading in New York. 7:30am: Wall Street called higher The main indices on Wall Street are expected to open higher on Friday morning amid a burst of end-of-week positivity from traders. The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones are all set to start on the front foot, recouping heavy losses on Thursday after reports that the Biden administration is set to propose a 40% capital gains tax for the wealthy. “The prospect of a doubling to CGT prompted speculation that many wealthy Americans could sell out of their stock holdings before the rise comes into play,” said Sophie Griffiths, analyst at OANDA. “Follow-through selling is evident in Europe. However, the fact that US futures are once again on the rise suggests that yesterday’s knee-jerk reaction on Wall Street was overdone.” According to Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at IG, traders are gradually seeing the “uncomfortable truth” that the financial stimulus has to be paid one way or another. “Quite whether Biden manages to garner enough support to pass this bill remains to be seen, with the president likely to require almost unanimous support from the Democrats given the expected widespread rejection from the GOP,” he commented. Four things to watch for on Friday: The earnings calendar for the end of the week will feature numbers from Kleenex and Andrex maker Kimberly-Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB), oilfield services group Schlumberger NV (NYSE:SLB) and cruise line Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:RCL) Shares in credit card firm American Express Co (NYSE:AXP) will be in focus after the firm reported earnings that wear ahead of expectations despite a fall in revenues Bitcoin will also draw some attention after the value of the cryptocurrency dropped below US$50,000 amid an ongoing sell-off in the crypto markets On the macro front, flash PMIs from the US will be in focus in addition to new homes sales data for March