NEW YORK — Stocks are mixed in early trading Tuesday as Wall Street watches for new developments in the Trump administration’s bid to win more favourable trade deals from nations around the globe by threatening to impose punishing tariffs on their exports to the U.S.
The S&P 500 was up less than 0.1 per cent a day after posting its biggest drop since June. The benchmark index remains near its all-time high set last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 47 points, or 0.1 per cent, as of 9:56 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2 per cent higher.
Bond yields were mostly higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.43 from 4.39 per cent late Monday.
The market is coming off a broad sell-off after U.S. President Donald Trump set a 25 per cent tax on goods imported from Japan and South Korea and new tariff rates on a dozen other nations scheduled to go into effect on Aug. 1.
Trump provided notice by posting letters on Truth Social that were addressed to the leaders of the various countries. The letters warned them to not retaliate by increasing their own import taxes, or else the Trump administration would further increase tariffs.
“Financial markets have reacted to news of higher U.S. tariffs in sanguine fashion,” wrote Chris Turner, ING’s global head of markets. “Presumably, the view is now that there are more deals to be done before the (Aug. 1) deadline.”
Just before hefty U.S. tariffs on goods imported from nearly every country around the globe were to take effect in April, Trump postponed the levies for 90 days in hopes that foreign governments would be more willing to strike new trade deals. That 90-day negotiating period was set to expire before Wednesday.
Gains among health care, technology and other sectors outweighed a pullback in banks and elsewhere in the market.
Intel rose 4.1 per cent and Eli Lilly and Co. was 1.5 per cent higher. JPMorgan and Bank of America were each down 1.9 per cent.
Amazon shares slipped 0.2 per cent as the online retail giant kicked off Prime Day, which, beginning this year, lasts four days. Amazon launched the membership sales event in 2015 and expanded it to two days in 2019.
The downbeat start to the week follows a strong run for stocks, which pushed further into record heights last week after a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report.
In stock markets overseas, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. In two of the bigger moves, South Korea’s Kospi surged 1.8 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 1.1 per cent.
U.S. benchmark crude was down 0.3 per cent, while Brent crude, the international standard, was off 0.2 per cent.
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Alex Veiga, The Associated Press
