U.S. stocks close mixed as tech giants sink
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 400.17 points, or 0.91 percent, to 44,494.94. The S&P 500 sank 6.94 points, or 0.11 percent, to 6,198.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 166.84 points, or 0.82 percent, to 20,202.89.
Nine of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with materials and health leading the gainers by adding 2.28 percent and 1.39 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, communication services and technology led the laggards by losing 1.19 percent and 1.13 percent, respectively.
The U.S. Senate voted 51-50 on the president's One Big Beautiful Bill, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote to push the bill through. The legislation now returns to the House of Representatives, which will vote on the Senate's amendments. The Trump administration has been racing to meet a self-imposed July 4 deadline for the bill's final passage.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported that the United States is scaling back its push for comprehensive "reciprocal" trade deals. Instead, officials are working to secure narrower agreements before Trump's broad tariffs are set to resume on July 9.
Investors also focused on remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who spoke Tuesday at the European Central Bank's annual forum in Sintra, Portugal. Powell reiterated that the central bank is taking a cautious approach amid economic uncertainty caused by Trump's tariffs. He emphasized that the U.S. economy remains fundamentally strong, but that the inflationary impact of tariffs is delaying a decision on interest rate cuts.
"I wouldn't take any meeting off the table or put it directly on the table," Powell said when asked about the possibility of a cut in July. "It's going to depend on how the data evolved," he said, adding that "we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs."
Fresh labor market data released Tuesday hinted 7.76 million job openings at the end of May, up from 7.39 million in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The April figure was also revised upward. The May total exceeded economists' expectations for 7.3 million openings, underscoring continued demand for labor despite concerns about slowing growth.
"Hiring remains depressed, but that is less worrisome than it would be otherwise because layoffs continue to be low," Oxford Economics lead economist Nancy Vanden Houten wrote in a note to clients.
As of Tuesday, markets were pricing in a roughly 23-percent chance that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its July meeting and a 96-percent chance of at least one rate cut by the end of the September meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
Tesla shares fell 5.34 percent in late trading as tensions between U.S. billionaire Elon Musk and Trump flared again. Musk criticized the president's bill newly passed at the Senate, while Trump fired back, claiming that the Tesla CEO had benefited excessively from government subsidies.
Other major technology stocks were mostly lower. Chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom dropped nearly 3 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Meta Platforms declined 2.56 percent, and Microsoft and Alphabet also posted losses. Apple rose 1.29 percent, extending gains from Monday after reports surfaced that the company is exploring integrating artificial intelligence technology from OpenAI or Anthropic into its Siri voice assistant. Amazon shares rose 0.5 percent.
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