U.S. Stocks Finish Choppy Trading Day Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - Following the rally seen in the previous session, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before eventually closing in positive territory for the third straight day.

The Nasdaq climbed 83.26 points or 0.5 percent to 18,271.86, the S&P 500 rose 9.08 points or 0.2 percent to 5,776.65 and the Dow inched up 4.18 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 42,587.50.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid ongoing uncertainty about President Donald Trump's tariff plans following recent reports he plans to take a more narrow approach to new tariffs.

Trump said at an event on Monday that he "may give a lot of countries breaks" on reciprocal tariffs that are set to take effect April 2nd.

However, Trump also said he plans to impose tariffs on the automotive and pharmaceutical industries in the "very near future" and later added the lumber and semiconductor industries to his list of targets.

The president has recently made many conflicting remarks about his tariff plans, leading to considerable uncertainty on Wall Street.

Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a report from the Conference Board showing consumer confidence in the U.S. deteriorated by more than expected in the month of March.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index tumbled to 92.9 in March from an upwardly revised 100.1 in February.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to slump to 94.2 from the 98.3 originally reported for the previous month.

"Consumer confidence declined for a fourth consecutive month in March, falling below the relatively narrow range that had prevailed since 2022," said Stephanie Guichard, Senior Economist, Global Indicators at The Conference Board.

Sector News

Despite the higher close by the broader markets, pharmaceutical stocks moved sharply lower on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index down by 2.0 percent.

Considerable weakness was also visible among utilities stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent loss posted by the Dow Jones Utility Average.

Airline, healthcare and biotechnology stocks also saw notable weakness, while gold stocks moved higher along with the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 1.6 percent.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled by 2.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both jumped by 1.1 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries moved higher over the course of the session after seeing initial weakness. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 2.4 basis points to 4.307 percent.

Looking Ahead

Trading on Wednesday may be impacted by reaction to the Commerce Department's report on durable goods orders in the month of February.