Stocks Fall After News of Biden Tax Plan: Live Updates

Stocks on Wall Street tumbled on Thursday as investors reacted to reports that the Biden administration was weighing new tax increases on wealthy investors to fund its spending plans.

Among the increases on the table, The New York Times and other media outlets reported, is an increase in taxes on capital gains for people earning more than $1 million, effectively raising the rate they pay on that income to 39.6 percent from 20 percent. Capital gains taxes are levied on profits from investments in stocks and other assets.

President Biden is set to outline the increase, along with other changes, as he unveils his so-called American Family Plan next week. Its details remain a work in progress and could change in the days before the announcement.

“Some traders are looking for an excuse to lock-in profits and they might choose to use this tax story as their catalyst,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst for the Americas at brokerage firm Oanda, wrote in a note to clients. The S&P 500 is up more than 10 percent so far this year and trading close to its record highs.

The index and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.9 percent on Thursday, giving up earlier gains soon after Bloomberg News flashed a headline about the capital gains tax increase.

Renewable Energy

Shares in renewable energy companies rose as President Biden’s two-day climate summit began on Thursday, with the announcement that the United States intends to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade.

Ahead of the virtual summit with dozens of world leaders, Britain has also sped up its own climate change targets. On Tuesday, it set a new target of cutting emissions by nearly 80 percent by 2035, compared with 1990 levels. On Wednesday, the European Union agreed to a new target to reduce net emissions at least 55 percent by the end of the decade.

“As governments around the world look to kick-start their recoveries as well as reach climate goals, green spending has become one avenue for doing so,” strategists at UBS Global Wealth Management wrote in a note. “We think the sustainable investment universe will continue to expand rapidly.”

Shares in Orsted, a Danish wind energy company, rose 6.1 percent on Thursday, ending a eight-day streak of losses. Shares in Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy jumped 6.7 percent.

In the United States, shares of First Solar rose 4.2 percent, and SunPower rose 1 percent, extending gains from Wednesday. The iShares Global Clean Energy exchange-traded fund, which has $5.6 billion in assets, gained 2.4 percent.

ABC has sold out its advertising inventory for the pandemic-delayed Academy Awards on Sunday, with companies like Google, General Motors, Rolex and Verizon spending an estimated $2 million for each 30-second spot, according to media buyers — only a slight decline from last year’s pricing even though the television audience is expected to be sharply smaller.

Rita Ferro, president of Disney Advertising Sales, which sells ads on Disney-owned ABC, announced the sellout. She declined to comment on pricing or say how much revenue Disney will generate from the telecast. Last year, the Oscars pulled in about $129 million across 56 ads, according to Kantar Media, a research firm. (A red-carpet preshow attracted $16.3 million across 42 ads.)

Additional revenue comes from “integrations” and other sponsorships. For the first time, for instance, ABC will have a sponsor for closed-captioning (Google). The upshot: ABC’s revenue for the telecast is estimated to have declined only 3 to 5 percent from last year — a tiny drop compared…