By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wall Street fluctuated between gains and losses on Tuesday while crude and gold prices slid as investors juggled corporate earnings, signs of progress in President Donald Trump’s multi-front tariff negotiations, and generally downbeat economic data.
All three major U.S. stock indexes were last modestly higher, with the blue-chip Dow out front.
Canada’s election served a rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump’s bruising trade policies and comments about annexing the nation to become the United States’ 51st state.
“Canada made a major statement; it’s not going to roll over to Trump,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. “They are going to be very tough on trade issues. I think they’re insulted by the idea that Trump wants to make them the 51st state.
“Hopefully the rhetoric out of the White House subsides,” Ghriskey added.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday tariff talks are ongoing, that the onus of U.S.-China trade negotiations fell on Beijing and that he didn’t expect supply chain disruption to result from these disputes.
For its part, China has exempted ethane from its 125% tariff on U.S. imports, according to two sources familiar with the matter, in the latest sign that the tariff situation is fluid.
First-quarter reporting season is shifting into overdrive this week.
Four of the “Magnificent Seven” group of artificial intelligence-related megacap stocks – Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.com – are among the high-profile results expected this week.
On the economic front, consumer confidence soured more than expected and job openings dropped 3.9%.
“Consumer confidence is also down, you know pretty significantly, and I think there is nervousness about the economy in general because of these trade issues, these tariff issues,” Ghriskey said. “There’s going to be some pain on the consumer level.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 225.92 points, or 0.56%, to 40,453.51, the S&P 500 rose 10.79 points, or 0.19%, to 5,539.54 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 13.18 points, or 0.07%, to 17,378.36.
European shares pared initial gains as investors parsed corporate earnings while keeping an eye on tariff developments.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 2.26 points, or 0.27%, to 829.47.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.38%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 8.18 points, or 0.39%.
Emerging market stocks rose 4.72 points, or 0.43%, to 1,107.28. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed higher by 0.34% at 575.73, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 134.25 points, or 0.38%, to 35,839.99.
The dollar gained after Bessent’s comments regarding progress in trade talks, but was still on course to notch its biggest two-month fall in more than 20 years.
Canada’s loonie softened against the dollar as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals retained power in Monday’s election, fueled by a backlash against Trump’s tariffs and comments about making the nation the 51st state.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.12% to 99.16, with the euro down 0.21% at $1.1397.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.11% to 142.18.
Sterling weakened 0.31% to $1.3397.
The Mexican peso strengthened 0.03% versus the dollar at 19.586.
The Canadian dollar weakened 0.22% versus the greenback to C$1.39 per dollar.
U.S. 10-year Treasury yields fell for the sixth straight day to a three-week low on the heels of weaker-than-expected economic data.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 3.7 basis points to 4.179% from 4.216% late on Monday.
The 30-year bond yield fell 2.9 basis points to 4.6636% from 4.693% late on Monday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 2.5 basis points to 3.66%, from 3.685% late on Monday.
Oil prices slid as Trump’s ongoing, multi-front trade war raised the likelihood of global recession and fanned fears of dampening demand.
U.S. crude fell 1.93% to $60.85 a barrel and Brent fell to $64.54 per barrel, down 1.96% on the day.
Gold prices dipped in opposition to the dollar’s gain.
Spot gold fell 0.9% to $3,311.29 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 0.69% to $3,310.00 an ounce.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; additional reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe in London and Tom Westbrook in Singapore; editing by Mark Heinrich)
