Markets are rolling over as Trump scraps his business council

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Screen Shot 2017 08 16 at 1.27.26 PM

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Markets are rolling over after the members of US President Donald Trump's main business council agreed to disband the group shortly before the president tweeted he was scrapping the group himself.

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All three major indices slipped after the news, but still remained in the green.

Here was the scoreboard at 1:27 p.m. ET:

  • Dow: up by 0.1% after being up by as much as 0.64%
  • S&P 500 up by 0.1% after being up by 0.4%
  • Nasdaq: up by 0.1% after being up by 0.4%

According to the New York Times' David Gelles, Landon Thomas Jr., and Kate Kelly, the members of the Strategic and Policy Forum held a phone call on Wednesday to discuss the future of the council and their relationship with the White House.

The group hoped to inform the White House before publicly announcing the decision, according to Bloomberg.

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The discussion comes two days after the departure of Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier from Trump's manufacturing council, another one of the White House's meetings of business leaders, set off a wave of departures from that group. Frazier and other business leaders cited Trump's muddled response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia as the impetus for the exits.

The Strategic and Policy Forum features a diverse group of leaders including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon. Steve Schwarzman, CEO of private equity giant Blackstone, is the leader of the council.

Head over to Business Insider's full story here.