It looked for a long time like it would end green, but at the close, both the Dow Jones industrial index and the S&P 500 index were traded sideways, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq index landed at plus 0.3 percent.
US President Donald Trump's controversial tax and expenditure proposal passed its first hurdle and was voted through in the House of Representatives on Thursday.
The package, dubbed the "big, beautiful bill", includes, among other things, increased defense and border surveillance allocations. It also provides an extension of tax relief decided in 2017, during Trump's first term, as well as new ones in the form of tax exemptions for tips and overtime pay.
Former President Joe Biden's green energy-related tax relief is being abolished.
From a market perspective, this will drive up the country's budget deficit, and the yield on 30-year government bonds has now reached a level last recorded in October 2023.
Among the losers are companies that are affected by the decision to phase out tax relief for projects.
Sunrun, which installs solar panels on rooftops, plummeted 37.1%, Enphase Energy fell 19.6%, and Solaredge sank 24.7%.
Among Thursday's winners are, among others, the clothing brand Urban Outfitters, up 22.8%, and Google's parent company Alphabet, plus 1.9%, and electric car manufacturer Tesla, up 1.9%.
