By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Dow gained while the Nasdaq lost ground on Tuesday and crude settled lower as investors assessed a spate of mixed earnings and signs that President Donald Trump’s protracted trade war is hitting corporate profit margins, even as Trump’s dealmaking deadline approached.
The S&P 500 closed with nominal gains as underperforming tech shares dragged the Nasdaq into the red.
Gold extended its gains in opposition to the softening dollar, and U.S. Treasury yields eased for the third-straight session.
“(Investors are) looking for additional catalysts and you’re seeing some cautious comments coming out of companies,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut. “They’re hearing mixed guidance when it comes to all this uncertainty revolving around tariffs and the direction things are heading.”
Second-quarter earnings season has hit full stride, with nearly one-fifth of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 79% have beaten analyst expectations, according to LSEG data.
Analysts expect year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 7%, on aggregate, a sizable improvement over the 5.8% growth predicted as of July 1, per LSEG.
Still, the effects of the trade war have begun seeping into corporate results. General Motors’ second-quarter core profit slid 32% as steep tariff costs took a $1.1-billion bite from its bottom line.
Prospects of a U.S.-European Union trade deal appeared to be fading as Washington’s August 1 deadline loomed, prompting EU members to ramp up possible “anti-coercion” retaliatory measures.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday he would meet with his Chinese counterpart to discuss delaying the August 12 trade talks deadline with China again, as the world’s two largest economies wrestle with the flow of technology and rare earth materials.
“These are pretty classic negotiations; nothing ever happens until it has to happen,” says Chuck Carlson, CEO at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. “Nothing gets done until the deadline, then either the deadline gets extended or there’s some resolution that comes out of nowhere.”
“The flip side of this is Trump’s going to have to follow through eventually,” Carlson added. “Otherwise, he’s going to be the boy that cried wolf, and his negotiating power is going to be sapped because people will believe he’s never going to follow through.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 179.12 points, or 0.40%, to 44,502.19, the S&P 500 rose 3.99 points, or 0.06%, to 6,309.59 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 81.49 points, or 0.39%, to 20,892.69.
European shares ended lower, weighed down by disappointing earnings and looming anxieties over the lack of progress in U.S. trade negotiations.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.68 points, or 0.07%, to 930.31.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.41%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 8.50 points, or 0.39%
Emerging market stocks fell 3.93 points, or 0.31%, to 1,249.53. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed lower by 0.17%, to 657.56, while Japan’s Nikkei fell 44.19 points, or 0.11%, to 39,774.92.
The dollar continued to edge lower amid a subdued currency market as investors awaited any sign of progress in trade talks ahead of the August 1 deadline.
The dollar index <USD=>, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.5% to 97.36, with the euro up 0.49% at $1.1752.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.56% to 146.56.
Bitcoin gained 1.98% to $119,320.90. Ethereum declined 2.41% to $3,668.31.
U.S. Treasury yields appeared set to notch a third-straight day of declines as the market took a breather on the heels of Monday’s rally.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 2.8 basis points to 4.342%, from 4.37% late on Monday.
The 30-year bond yield fell 2.6 basis points to 4.9111% from 4.937% late on Monday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 1.9 basis points to 3.833%, from 3.852% late on Monday.
Oil prices weakened on growing worries over softening demand as the August 1 tariff deadline drew closer.
U.S. crude slid 1.47% to settle at $66.21 per barrel, while Brent settled at $68.59 per barrel, down 0.9%.
Gold prices surpassed a five-week high, extending their gains on the softening dollar and weaker U.S. bond yields.
Spot gold rose 1.07% to $3,431.87 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 1.15% to $3,441.00 an ounce.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Ankur Banerjee in Singapore Editing by Deepa Babington, Rod Nickel and Daniel Wallis)
