By Stephen Culp, Chris Prentice and Samuel Indyk
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. stocks fluttered to a mixed close on Wednesday amid fresh tariff threats while a draft U.S.-Ukraine deal on critical minerals and robust corporate earnings helped European shares close at a record high.
Global shares also gained and benchmark Treasury yields notched their sixth straight day of declines, while the U.S. dollar rose after House Republicans advanced U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax cut plans.
Artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia posted better than expected quarterly revenue and adjusted earnings per share.
Nvidia’s shares rose 3.7% in extended trading after the release.
Investor skepticism has grown over the billions that U.S. tech firms have channelled into AI infrastructure due to slow payoffs and to breakthroughs at China’s DeepSeek.
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives late on Tuesday narrowly passed Trump’s $4.5 trillion tax-cut plan, sending the budget resolution to the Senate, where Republicans are expected to take it up.
“It’s mainly good for corporate U.S.,” said Lars Skovgaard, senior investment strategist at Danske Bank.
“There’s expected to be less regulation and tax cuts. I would expect it to happen and then it will be positive for markets if they do so.”
U.S. housing data showed the sales of new homes fell sharply in January as persistently high mortgage rates sidelined potential homebuyers.
The data is the latest to hint at dampening consumer demand.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 187.48 points, or 0.43%, to 43,433.68, the S&P 500 rose 0.90 points, or 0.02%, to 5,956.15 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 48.88 points, or 0.26%, to 19,075.26.
European sentiment improved after reports that the U.S. and Ukraine agreed terms of a draft minerals deal, sending European shares up for a second straight day to an all-time closing high.
“(The plan) moved through just a little bit quicker than people were expecting,” said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 2.27 points, or 0.26%, to 869.00.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.99%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 22.22 points, or 1.01%.
Emerging market stocks rose 12.88 points, or 1.15%, to 1,135.26. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed higher by 1.18%, to 596.26, while Japan’s Nikkei fell 95.42 points, or 0.25%, to 38,142.37.
Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields reversed earlier gains amid new tariff uncertainties, and registered their sixth straight declines.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 4.6 basis points to 4.252%, from 4.298% late on Tuesday.The 30-year bond yield fell 4.4 basis points to 4.5121% from 4.556% late on Tuesday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 2 basis points to 4.076%, from 4.096% late on Tuesday.A closely watched part of the U.S. Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes, seen as an indicator of economic expectations, was at a positive 17.4 basis points.
Fed funds futures now point to 55 bps of easing priced in by year-end, implying at least two quarter-point cuts, up from about 40 bps a week ago.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,rose 0.23% to 106.48, with the euro down 0.25% at $1.0487.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.01% to 149.03.
Oil prices touched a two-month low after a surprise build-up in U.S. stockpiles and the growing potential for a Ukraine-Russia peace deal weighed on prices.
U.S. crude dropped 0.45% to settle at $68.62 per barrel, while Brent settled at $72.53 per barrel, down 0.67% on the day.
Gold prices were subdued after a recent record rally, while investors looked to inflation data on Friday and digested Trump’s latest tariff plans.
Spot gold rose 0.03% to $2,915.99 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.33% to $2,914.10 an ounce.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp and Chris Prentice in New York and Samuel Indyk and Rae Wee in London; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Nick Zieminski and Deepa Babington)
