4:20pm: Market unease
Stocks closed mixed Tuesday as trade tensions with China and the start of earnings season kept investors on edge.
The Dow rose 203 points, or 0.4%, to 46,270, while the Russell 2000 gained 1.4% to 2,496. The S&P 500 slipped 10 points, or 0.2%, to 6,644, and the Nasdaq fell 173 points, or 0.8%, to 22,522.
China hit US-linked units of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean with sanctions and both nations began charging special port fees, while President Trump accused Beijing of “purposefully not buying” U.S. soybeans and threatened a halt to cooking oil purchases.
Earnings kicked off with reports from JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo.
Elsewhere, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the outlook for employment and inflation hasn’t changed, signaling more rate cuts could be possible.
3:48pm: Proactive news headlines
- Millennial Potash Corp (TSX-V:MLP, OTCQB:MLPNF) intersected 101.45 metres of 16.8% potassium chloride at its Banio Potash Project in Gabon.
- Nextech3D.AI (CSE:NTAR, OTCQX:NEXCF) completed a $700,000 acquisition of Eventdex, boosting its AI event technology offerings.
- Candel Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CADL) secured a $130 million five-year loan to support cancer immunotherapy development.
- Charbone Hydrogen Corporation (TSX-V:CH, OTCQB:CHHYF) signed a five-year agreement to supply Ultra High Purity hydrogen starting November 2025.
- Excellon Resources Inc (TSX:EXN, OTCQB:EXNRF) is preparing to restart its Mallay silver-lead-zinc mine in Peru after initial rehabilitation.
- G Mining Ventures Corp (TSX:GMIN, OTCQX:GMINF) produced 46,360 ounces of gold in Q3 at the Tocantinzinho Mine, up 9% from the prior quarter.
2:59pm: Market movers
- Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL, ETR:ORC) Cloud Infrastructure on Tuesday unveiled plans to deploy 50,000 Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD, ETR:AMD) Instinct MI450 AI processors starting in the second half of 2026, signaling a major expansion of its partnership with the chipmaker. Shares of AMD moved higher on the news, while Nvidia stock was pressured.
- Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT, ETR:WMT) has announced a new partnership with OpenAI to create AI-first shopping experiences, enabling customers and Sam’s Club members to shop directly through ChatGPT using an Instant Checkout feature, sending its shares higher.
- Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC, ETR:NWT) stock jumped 6.4% after the financial services firm reported stronger-than-expected results for the third quarter.
- Domino's Pizza Inc (NYSE:DPZ) shares added almost 4% after the global pizza chain reported better-than-expected financial results for the third quarter, driven by growth in both US and international markets.
- Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) on Tuesday reported better than expected financial results for its third quarter 2025, as bigger mergers and capital-raising deals boosted performance across its markets, banking, services, wealth, and US retail divisions. Shares moved almost 5% higher.
1:35pm: Small business optimism dips
Small business optimism in the US fell in September 2025, with the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index dropping 2 points to 98.8.
This marks the first decline in three months, though the index remains above its 52-year average.
The pullback reflects growing concerns about inflation, ongoing supply chain disruptions, and labor market challenges.
About 64% of small businesses report supply chain issues, while 14% cited inflation as their biggest worry, prompting more firms to raise prices.
The NFIB’s uncertainty index also surged to one of its highest levels in over 50 years, suggesting that anxiety over an impending federal government shutdown may have weighed on sentiment.
“Although small firms have generally been downbeat for much of the year, the uncertainty index spiked to the highest level since February, suggesting that increased chances of an impending federal government shutdown may have weighed on sentiment,” Wells Fargo analysts noted.
12:45pm: Investors welcome Powell's speech
US stocks pared their losses as investors welcomed comments from Fed chair Jerome Powell, in which he implied another interest rate cut is possible at the FOMC’s October meeting.
Speaking in Philadelphia at the National Association for Business Economics, Powell noted that "the downside risks to employment appear to have risen" and shifted policymakers’ assessment of the balance of risks.
"While official employment data for September are delayed, available evidence suggests that both layoffs and hiring remain low, and that both households’ perceptions of job availability and firms’ perceptions of hiring difficulty continue their downward trajectories,” Powell said.
He also highlighted the Fed's data-dependent, balanced approach to policy, navigating trade-offs between employment and inflation goals.
He signaled that the Fed may stop shrinking its balance sheet in the coming months and noted the worsening labor market outlook, fueling expectations for a potential interest rate cut at the upcoming meeting.
Following Powell’s comments, the Dow Jones added 0.7%, the S&P 500 was up 0.3%, while the Nasdaq was down 0.1%.
11:32am: Strong bank earnings fail to lift stocks
Strong third-quarter earnings from major banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and BlackRock, highlighted underlying economic resilience on Tuesday. Despite these positive results, US stock markets struggled to gain ground.
Investors remained cautious amid rising geopolitical and trade tensions, particularly between the US and China, including sanctions on US subsidiaries of a South Korean shipbuilder and reciprocal port fees.
Late morning, the Nasdaq was down 0.8% at 22,517 points, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% at 6,632 points and the Dow Jones was little changed at 46,097 points.
10:45am: Political uncertainty rocks stocks
US stocks struggled on Tuesday morning amid heightened US-China trade tensions.
“Global stock markets resumed Friday's sell-offs as initial optimism over US-China trade relations faded as both countries imposed new port fees on each other's shipments,” IG chief senior technical analyst Axel Rudolph said.
Oil and silver prices also moved lower, while gold remained stable.
“The oil price slid by around 2% to a 5-month low after the International Energy Agency (IEA) reinforced expectations of a growing supply surplus and diminishing demand in 2025 and 2026,” Rudolph said.
“Silver dropped by around 1.75%, copper by close to 3% while the price of gold remained unchanged."
9:55am: Tech giants and banks lead sell-off
Wall Street stocks have opened sharply lower for the second time in three sessions.
The Nasdaq Composite has dropped 1.5%, while the S&P 500 fell 1.1% the Dow Jones dropped just over 1%, with the small cap Russell 2000 down 1.2%.
The top 10 largest names on the S&P and the Nasdaq are all in red, with Nvidia down almost 4% (losing over $180 billion of value), Broadcom, Tesla and Oracle all down over 3%.
Banks and financials, led by Goldman Sachs, down 4.9%, followed by Interactive Brokers, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, are also among the bigger fallers despite earnings that beat forecasts.
Wells Fargo and BlackRock are top of the S&P risers, up 2.9% and 2.3%, after their earnings were more warmly received.
8:30am: Nasdaq futures sharply in red as China ramps up trade tit-for-tat
US stocks are tipped to open lower on Tuesday, as the market's confidence from the start of the week was knocked by China's latest moves in the trade war.
Tech stocks are set to lead the decline, with Nasdaq 100 futures down 1.2% ahead of the opening bell, with the S&P 500 down 0.9% and futures for the Dow Jones slipping 0.7%.
This followed news this morning that China has imposed sanctions on five US-linked subsidiaries of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, adding to existing port fees charged by both the US and China from today.
A negative open will continue a turbulent few days for Wall Street, reversing the strong gains for US stocks seen at the start of the week, where the tech-powered Nasdaq rebounded 2.2% after Friday saw the biggest sell off in US equities since reciprocal tariffs were unveiled in April. The S&P climbed 1.6% and the Dow added 1.3% on Monday.
After tempering his comments a day earlier, US Treasury Scott Bessent today was on the other attack, saying Beijing's moves are "a sign of how weak their economy is, and they want to pull everybody else down with them".
He told the Financial Times: "If they want to slow down the global economy, they will be hurt the most."
After a summer where tariff concerns seemed to have melted away as far as investors were concerned, said market analyst David Morrison at Trade Nation, "the US-China trade dispute is now definitely back in the headlines" as the White House's tariff deadline looms.
"While the issues hadn’t gone away, the fact that the Trump administration had postponed the deadline for tariffs on China for three months until 1st November gave, from the market’s point of view, stacks of time for both sides to reach an agreement. But now that deadline is fast approaching."
Analysts at Oxford Economics noted that US Treasury yields were lower, with trade concerns sustaining a broader risk-off trade that as well as pushing US equity index futures down sharply, also boosted the dollar index, up 0.1% at 99.4.
A limited data calendar will "keep the focus on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech on the economic outlook and monetary policy early this afternoon" as well as Fed vice chair Bowman this morning, and Fed Governor Waller and Fed President Collins in the afternoon.
Also being absorbed into market sentiment were emerging earnings from various key sectors, with JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Citigroup all reporting bumper third-quarter numbers, while Johnson & Johnson also mostly beat expectations.
Goldman Sachs shares were down 2% in premarket trading, while JPM was 0.3% lower. Well jumped over 3%, while Citi was up 1%.