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Wall Street shares closed firmly in the red in the truncated session ahead of the July 4 holiday.
Amid light volumes, The Dow Jones industrial Average closed 132 points lower at 24,174, while the S&P500 shed around 13 at 2,713.
The tech heavy Nasdaq index finished down around 65 points at 7,502.
In Europe, indices had closed higher earlier, with FTSE 100 up around 45 points and the DAX in Germany up 111.
Gold added 1.01% to US$1,254 an ounce, while US crude (West Texas Intermediate) firmed 0.32% to US$74.18 an ounce.
Bond prices rose on Tuesday. The yield on the 10-year bonds dropped to to 2.83% from 2.87% yesterday.
Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) was a notable gainer, gushing up 3.10% to US$21.27, while Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) tanke d 6.13% to US$51.14 each.
It came after a report that a Chinese court had blocked sales in the People's Republic of memory chip products from the firm.
Other semiconductor stocks also fell , as the fight between China and Micron is seen as a bellwether amid a trade tussle between China and the USA.
Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM shares shed 1.51%, while Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares lost 2.23% to US$236.84.
US markets reopen on Thursday, and investors are perhaps likely to wake up with a bang.
On Friday the US will start imposing a 25% tariff on US$34bn worth of Chinese imports. And China is expected to strike back with tariffs on a similar amount of US exports.
Most US benchmarks march higher ahead of Fourth of July holiday, but Nasdaq falls
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With the exception of the tech-laden Nasdaq, US stocks marched modestly higher on Tuesday as investors set aside lingering concerns about trade tensions to kick off a shortened trading session ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index climbed 127 points to 24,435, pushed up by gains from Exxon Mobil, Chevron and 3M.
Shares of energy stocks were also trading higher after the price of West Texas Intermediate oil jumped above US$75 per barrel for the first time since November of 2014.
The jump in the oil price stems from concerns about Libyan exports and a disruption in supply from a key Canadian oil sands production unit.
The S&P 500, meanwhile, added nearly 9 points to hover at 2,735 while the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks rose 6.4 points to 1,661.5.
Up in Canada, Toronto’s TSX jumped 38 points to 16,315, led higher by financial stocks as well as energy companies.
After opening higher, the Nasdaq bucked the trend to turn negative. Early in the session, the tech-heavy index shed 11 points to hover at 7,556, dragged back by its biggest laggard Tesla.
Indeed, shares in the electric car maker shed 4% in morning trade as investors questioned whether the electric car maker will be able to continue to meet its Model 3 car production targets.
US markets will close today at 1 p.m. for the July 4th holiday and will not reopen until July 5.