Stocks pare their losses as health care companies climb

Stocks pare their losses as health care companies climb

Last week's failure by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, something they've been pledging to do for years, raised doubts that Washington can push through promises they made to help businesses.

Investors have been anticipating that President Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress will cut income taxes, loosen regulations for companies and institute other corporate-friendly policies.

The ICE U.S. Dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency's value against six others, has given up most of its big gains since Election Day.

Bank stocks have tracked the movements of Treasury yields recently, because higher interest rates would allow them to charge more for loans and reap bigger profits.

Financial stocks in the S&P 500 dropped 0.7 percent, one of the largest losses among the 11 sectors that make up the index.

The Republican health care plan would have resulted in 24 million additional uninsured people in a decade, according to a tally by the Congressional Budget Office.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.4 percent, South Korea's Kospi index lost 0.6 percent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.7 percent.