Recovery Continues from Tariff Fallout, Stocks Make Small Gains

Stocks crawled out from negative readings from after President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered no exceptions to his Aug. 1 tariff start date.

The Dow Jones Industrials remained negative 57.2 points to 44,349.16.

The S&P 500 index found some positive energy, up 3.19 points to 6,233.15.

The NASDAQ Composite gained 18.07 points to 20,430.58.

Nvidia shares rose 0.6% on Tuesday. The chipmaker is also closing in on reaching a $4 trillion market cap. Tesla shares also rebounded 3% after losing 6.1%.

On the other hand, big banks were the worst performing cohort after HSBC adopted a “more cautious stance” on larger banks. Shares of JPMorgan and Bank of America shed 3%, while Goldman Sachs slipped 2%.

Trump late Monday said the new Aug. 1 tariff deadline is “not 100% firm,” adding that “If they call up and they say something a different way, we’re going to be open to that.”

His comments came after he posted letters to countries announcing new tariffs on their respective imports.

Stocks sold off Monday following Trump’s posts, with the Dow tumbling more than 400 points, after the president set 25% tariffs on goods imported from South Korea and Japan.

Overall, at least 14 countries are set to face new duties including South Africa and Kazakhstan.
However, some traders no longer forecast the latest U.S. tariffs to be as strict as initially feared, with many expecting that the worst from the trade war has now passed.

Prices for the 10-year treasury were lower, raising yields to 4.42% from Monday’s 4.39%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices recovered 41 cents to $68.34 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices dropped $35.60 to $3,317.20 U.S. an ounce.