Wall Street struggled for direction on Tuesday as investors weighed signs of progress in U.S. trade talks and perused a spate of second-quarter company earnings, some of which showed a hit from President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
At 09:38 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 68.00 points, or 0.16%, to 44,393.01, the S&P 500 gained 5.04 points, or 0.08%, to 6,310.64, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 19.88 points, or 0.09%, to 20,954.29.
Tariffs have started to take a bite out of Wall Street giants. General Motors saw its second-quarter profit skid 32% to $3 billion, with the automaker blaming hefty tariff costs for carving out $1.1 billion from its results.
The company’s shares lost 6.5%, while peer Ford also dipped 1.4%.
“Everyone’s watching GM very closely and the numbers did disappoint, and specifically related to tariffs,” said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Muriel Siebert.
“The fact that they (GM) did come out and say that there’s going to be a forecast based on increases in tariffs is something that is going to play out throughout the day.”
RTX slashed its 2025 profit outlook after taking a direct hit from Trump’s tariff war, sending its shares down 3.9%.
Wall Street Week Ahead: Industrial sector’s gains to be tested as earnings ramp up
Lockheed Martin did not fare much better — its second-quarter profit nosedived nearly 80% after booking a hefty $1.6 billion pre-tax loss.
Yet, despite the trade turbulence from Washington, the robust U.S. economy has powered major indexes to fresh all-time highs.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to meet his Chinese counterpart next week, potentially discussing an extension to the August 12 deadline set for tariffs on China.
With just over a week before the August 1 deadline for most U.S. trading partners, Bessent stressed that the administration was focused on striking high-quality trade deals, not just quick ones.
Meanwhile, negotiations stalled with optimism for a breakthrough deal with India waning, according to Indian government officials, and as the EU weighed new countermeasures against the U.S.
Still, a slew of positive earnings surprises has kept markets near record territory. Analysts expect S&P 500 companies to report a healthy 6.7% jump in second-quarter profits, with Big Tech leading the charge, data compiled by LSEG showed.
Investors piled into tech titans on Monday, with Google-parent Alphabet powering Wall Street gains ahead of its results.
The company is scheduled to kick off earnings for the “Magnificent Seven” megacaps along with Tesla on Wednesday. Tesla rose 0.1% on Tuesday.
The healthcare sector jumped 1.3% to lead sectoral gains after falling for the last three sessions.
Meanwhile, Philip Morris fell 7.5%, after reporting second-quarter revenue behind expectations, while Coca-Cola slipped 1% despite beating quarterly profit estimates. The stocks dragged the consumer sector to the bottom.
After last week’s mixed economic cues, traders have all but ruled out an interest-rate cut next week. They now see about a 58% chance of a reduction in September, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.21-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.65-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 25 new highs and 22 new lows.
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