The days long struggle to pass a health-care bill spurred the biggest weekly decline for major stocks indexes in months. On Friday, House Republican leaders ultimately abandoned their bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, which investors viewed as a key test of the new administration's ability to implement its wider policy agenda. That includes tax overhaul and infrastructure spending plans that helped lift U.S. stocks to record highs earlier this year. After spending much of Friday morning positive, stocks fell sharply as a proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act looked set to fall short of the number of votes needed to pass in the House of Representatives. In late-afternoon trading, major indexes regained ground after the bill was scrapped. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 59.86 points, or 0.3%, to 20596.72 after earlier falling as many as 127 points. The fall put its weekly decline at 1.5%, its biggest since September. The S&P 500 declined 1.98 points, or 0.1%, to 2343.98, ending the week down 1.4%, its worst weekly performance since November. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite added 11.04 points, or 0.2%, to 5828.74 on Friday, notching a weekly loss of 1.2%. The health-care bill was viewed as the first real test of the Trump presidency, and some investors and traders had expressed concern that if it didn't pass it would put the rest of Trump's legislative agenda in jeopardy. The U.S. gold price also slumped on Friday, dropping 0.1% at 1,242.9 US$/oz.
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