S&P 500 and Dow turn higher, Nasdaq dips with Fed’s Powell, China tariff tensions in focus

US stocks diverged on Tuesday after China upped the ante in its trade spat with the US, while investors digested the kickoff of third quarter earnings season from Wall Street’s banking giants.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.5% after paring steep losses earlier in the session. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) also flipped into the green, rising 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slipped 0.2%.

The unsettled mood shifted throughout the morning, as stocks poked into the green amid Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Tuesday at the NABE annual meeting. In his remarks, the Fed chair said that the central bank’s outlook for employment and inflation had not changed, implying that further Fed cuts are possible.

Powell’s remarks came into heavy focus with key data reports stalled by the government shutdown, leaving the Fed and investors flying blind on the state of the jobs market and inflation.

Stocks had opened the session downtrodden after a strong rebound on Monday, thanks to a fresh round of retaliation from Beijing to President Trump’s trade salvos. Its latest moves to target US shipping have undermined recently revived hopes that the US and China will avoid an all-out trade war.

China has placed sanctions on five US-linked units of South Korean shipbuilding firm Hanwha Ocean, effectively barring Chinese companies from doing business with them. Both countries also began charging special port fees on one another’s vessels on Tuesday in a bid for maritime dominance.

Also in focus is third quarter earnings season, which kicked off in earnest on Tuesday morning with results from JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Wells Fargo (WFC). Goldman and JPMorgan shares dipped even as their quarterly profits were boosted by a flurry of Wall Street dealmaking. Wells Fargo stock, meanwhile, jumped as the bank’s profit also surged.

In the tech world, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said it will provide Oracle’s (ORCL) cloud business with 50,000 AI chips. The move by Nvidia’s (NVDA) chipmaking rival is the latest in a recent slew of AI deals.

LIVE 23 updates

  • Laura Bratton

    Strategy, Coinbase drop as crypto stocks trade mixed

    The world’s largest corporate bitcoin holder, Strategy (MSTR), and crypto exchange platform Coinbase (COIN) led some crypto stocks down Tuesday, with shares in the firms dropping nearly 2% in midday trading.

    Crypto investment platform Robinhood (HOOD) and stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) pared losses from earlier in the session to trade down fractionally as the broader market recovered from an earlier rout.

    Meanwhile, some crypto stocks jumped. Riot Platforms (RIOT) shares gained nearly 4%, while MARA Holdings (MARA) was up more than 8%.

  • Powell says ‘downside risks to employment appear to have risen,’ implying more Fed cuts are possible

    Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday in a speech that the outlook for employment and inflation has not changed much since the central bank’s policy meeting in September.

    However, Powell emphasized that “the downside risks to employment appear to have risen.”

    Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger reports:

    Read more here or watch a livestream of Powell’s speech below.

  • Walmart teams up with OpenAI to create a ChatGPT shopping experience

    Walmart (WMT) stock gained 3% in midday trading on Tuesday on news that the retailer would be partnering with OpenAI (OPAI.PVT), the most valuable AI startup, which has been making a slew of deals in recent months.

    Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma reports:

    Read more here.

  • JPMorgan’s Dimon on Tricolor losses: ‘It is not our finest moment’

    Yahoo Finance’s David Hollerith reports:

    Read more here.

  • Laura Bratton

    Nova Minerals stock soars after announcing White House interest in Alaska mining project

    Yahoo Finance’s Jake Conley reports:

    Read the full story here.

  • Laura Bratton

    Arm stock jumps following report of talks with OpenAI

    While the broader market suffered from a trade war-fueled rout, Arm (ARM) shares jumped more than 4% Tuesday following a report the previous day from the Information that the semiconductor designer is in talks with OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) for the ChatGPT maker to use its chips.

    Arm designs blueprints for central processing units (CPUs) — the “brains” of computers — which work alongside specialized AI chips to run artificial intelligence software. For example, Arm-based CPUs are used in Nvidia’s (NVDA) servers alongside its Blackwell AI processors.

    But Arm is reportedly developing its own CPU in addition to selling design blueprints, the Information reported. The company is talking with OpenAI about the AI chatbot firm using those CPUs alongside the AI chips it’s developing, according to the outlet. OpenAI unveiled a partnership with Broadcom (AVGO) to make such AI chips on Monday.

  • Laura Bratton

    Nvidia leads decline in Big Tech stocks

    Nvidia (NVDA) stock fell 3.6% Tuesday, leading a downturn in Big Tech stocks after a strong but short-lived recovery on Monday.

    All of the chipmaker’s fellow “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks also dropped, with Tesla (TSLA) shares sinking 3.2%, Amazon (AMZN) declining 2.2%, and Meta (META) dipping 1.3%. Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), and Apple (AAPL) fell less than 1%.

    Meanwhile, Broadcom (AVGO) — the custom AI chipmaker with a larger market capitalization than Tesla, which isn’t a part of the Magnificent Seven — also sank. Shares fell 3.5% after a big upswing on Monday as the company announced a massive deal with OpenAI (OPAI.PVT).

  • Laura Bratton

    Stocks slide at the open

    Tech led a decline in stocks at the market open Tuesday, as trade tensions once again escalated between the US and China.

    The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) sank over 1.4%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) dropped 1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slid 0.9%.

    In addition, investor attention turned to third quarter earnings season with multiple big US banks reporting results. But surging profits at JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS) failed to be reflected in the banks’ stocks in early trading.

  • Johnson & Johnson raises sales forecast, announces plans to spin off orthopedics unit

    Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced plans to spin off its orthopedics business on Tuesday as the company reported better-than-expected earnings and raised its 2025 revenue guidance.

    Shares ticked lower in premarket trading.

    J&J’s orthopedics unit, which makes hip, knee, and shoulder implants, among other products, is expected to become an independent company called DePuy Synthes within the next 18 to 24 months.

    “We think this business will benefit from focused capital deployment and a focus in the competitive landscape. We think this positions both entities for success,” CFO Joe Wolk told Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman.

    For the quarter, J&J reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.80, compared to Wall Street estimates of $2.76.

    Pharmaceutical sales rose 6.8% year over year to $15.56 billion, while medical device sales also rose 6.8% to $8.43 billion. Oncology treatment sales hit $3.67 billion.

    Johnson & Johnson raised its 2025 sales forecast by about $300 million to a new range of $93.5 billion to $93.9 billion, above analysts’ expectations of $93.4 billion.

  • Laura Bratton

    AMD stock rises amid Oracle deal

    Nvidia (NVDA) rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) saw its stock climb as much as 3% in premarket trading on Tuesday as the company announced a deal with Oracle (ORCL) to provide its cloud business with 50,000 AI chips.

    The news comes amid a slew of deals in the AI space just a week after AMD announced a deal with OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) to provide the AI chatbot maker with 6 gigawatts worth of its GPUs (graphics processing units). OpenAI is also a major customer of Oracle.

    AMD shares are up more than 36% over the past month.

    Meanwhile, Oracle stock was down more than 1% before the market open amid the broader market downtrend. The company recently soared after announcing a backlog of massive AI contracts with its cloud business, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, with $300 billion of that contracted revenue reportedly coming from OpenAI.

    But the stock pulled back some as Oracle unexpectedly raised $18 billion in debt, just as some analysts have cautioned that tech firms may begin turning to debt rather than relying on internal cash flows to fund their ambitious plans for AI infrastructure.

    Read more about AMD and Oracle’s deal here.

  • AI stocks are in a bubble, most investors believe: BofA survey

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.

  • Nova Minerals stock doubles in premarket trading amid US interest

    Nova Minerals (NVA) stock doubled in premarket trading, rising as much as 108%, after the Australian gold, antimony, and critical minerals miner said that it was engaged in Australia’s high-level talks with President Trump.

    In a press release, the company said that it had been approached by the Australian ambassador to the US to provide an update on its Estelle gold and critical minerals project in Alaska. The briefing is in preparation for the upcoming meeting between Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Trump in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 20.

    The Estelle project, northwest of Anchorage, was jump-started with a $43.4 million award from the US Department of War (DoW) and other government backing. It’s targeting military-grade antimony, a metal that was added to the critical minerals list, by 2026/27.

    The briefing suggests potential interest in a US stake in the project. Trump has recently moved to create US stakes in critical materials companies, including Trilogy Metals (TMQ), Lithium Americas (LAC), and MP Materials (MP).

    Resolution Minerals (NC3.F), another Australian mineral exploration company that was asked to brief the ambassador, saw its stock jump by over 45%.

  • Brian Sozzi

    Jamie Dimon weighs in on asset prices

    JP Morgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon to me on his thinking behind calling asset prices “elevated” for the second straight time on his earnings release. The comments are fresh off Dimon’s call with journalists to discuss earnings.

    Explained Dimon:

    “I would put it in the category of a risk factor at this point. And when asset prices are elevated, you have further to fall. Something goes wrong, and things look pretty good. You know, consumers are still spending companies are making money. Prices are up. So I just put it as a category of concern. We measure historically, they’re pretty high. Credit spreads are kind of low. You have a lot of assets out there which look like they’re entering bubble territory. That doesn’t mean you don’t have 20% to go. It’s just one more cause of concern.”

  • Tariff tensions separate gold from crypto

    Even as the White House calmed the rolling boil of China tensions down to a simmer on Monday, one asset remained scorching — gold (GC=F).

    Yahoo Finance’s Hamza Shaban digs into what fueled this week’s rally in the precious metal:

    Read more here in today’s takeaway from Morning Brief.

  • Wells Fargo boosts key profitability metric as asset cap removed

    Wells Fargo (WFC) posted third quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations on Tuesday, lifting the stock over 2% in premarket trading.

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.

  • Wall Street bonanza boosts profits at JPMorgan

    JPMorgan Chase (JPM) stock edged lower after the major US bank reported that its profits climbed in the third quarter.

    Yahoo Finance’s David Hollerith reports:

    Read more here.

  • Jenny McCall

    BlackRock hauls in $205B as private assets accelerate

    Bloomberg News reports:

    Read more here.

  • Jenny McCall

    Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.

  • Critical mineral stocks soar in Australia as US hunts stakes

    Australian miners with critical minerals projects made dizzying stock gains on Tuesday, amid signs of US interest in taking stakes. The moves come as an intensification in US-China trade tensions raises concern that Beijing will further curb access to its rare earths, key to production of US technology.

    Bloomberg reports:

    Read more here.

  • Jenny McCall

    From oil to the dollar: How US-China trade tensions are affecting markets

    The latest trade tensions between the US and China has rattled markets. Here’s a list of all the assets affected by the latest tariff turmoil.

    Currencies: The dollar (DX=F) fluctuated on Tuesday following China’s response to the US on tariffs. Risk sentiment fell as investors moved towards traditional safe havens such as the yen and Swiss franc.

    Crypto: Cryptocurrencies bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ether (ETH-USD) continued to fall on Tuesday. With the largest crypto asset, bitcoin dropping almost 3% to $111,950, while ether slumped 4% falling below $4,000 to $3,992. The crypto market shed $150 billion due to US-China trade tensions.

    Oil: Brent crude futures (BZ=F) fell 2% to $61.93 and US West Texas Intermediate crude (CL=F) also dropped 2% to $58.15 at 08:58 GMT, reversing earlier gains amid uncertainty around US-China trade relations.

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