After trading lower for most of the day amid uncertainty about last-minute negotiations in the White House, traders gave up and sold off at a stronger pace in the last half hour on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished off 158.20 points (1.21 per cent) lower at 12,938.11.

The broad-market S&P 500 lost 15.67 (1.10 per cent) to 1,402.43, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite shed 25.60 points (0.86 per cent) to 2,960.31.