WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After moving sharply lower over the course of the previous session, stocks have shown a lack of direction during trading on Tuesday. The major averages have spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.
Currently, the major averages are posting modest losses. The Dow is down 168.18 points or 0.4 percent at 44,238.18, the Nasdaq is down 21.15 points or 0.1 percent at 20,391.37 and the S&P 500 is down 11.86 points or 0.2 percent at 6,218.12.
The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as investors seem reluctant to make more significant moves amid lingering uncertainty about President Donald Trump's trade policies.
Trump on Monday signed an executive order officially extending the suspension of reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trade partners.
The executive order says the 90-day suspension, which was due to expire on Wednesday, has been extended until August 1st based on 'additional information and recommendations from various senior officials.'
However, Trump also said the new tariff deadline is 'not 100 percent firm,' adding, 'If they call up and they say something a different way, we're going to be open to that.'
The move comes after Trump posted several letters to world leaders on Truth Social threatening to impose higher tariffs on at least fourteen countries.
A lack of major U.S. economic data may also be keeping some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting on Wednesday.
The Fed minutes may shed additional light on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the central bank's next meeting on July 29-30.
CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 95.3 percent chance the Fed will leave rates unchanged later this month.
Sector News
Despite the lackluster performance by the broader markets, energy stocks have shown a substantial move to the upside on the day.
Reflecting the strength in the sector, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index is up by 4.6 percent and the NYSE Arca Oil Index is up by 2.8 percent.
Considerable strength is also visible among biotechnology stocks, as reflected by the 2.0 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index.
Semiconductor, pharmaceutical and health care stocks are also seeing notable strength, while gold stocks have moved sharply lower along with the price of the precious metal.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.3 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index climbed by 0.7 percent.
The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index is up by 0.6 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.5 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.4 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries are extending the downward trend seen over the past several sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 2.8 basis points at 4.423 percent.
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