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Investing.com-- The S&P 500 eked out a fresh record closing high Tuesday, as investors digested a slew of earnings and pressure from chip stocks.
At 4:00p.m. ET (20:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 170 points, or 0.40%, and the S&P 500 index added 0.03% clinching a closing record high of 6,307.67, while the NASDAQ Composite fell 0.4%.
Chips slide as AI Stargate project stalls
Chipmakers including NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) led the decline in chip stocks after The Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank (TYO:9984) and OpenAI scaled their plans to launch the $500 Stargate project.
In January, the companies announced plans to invest $100 billion immediately. But now those plans have been scaled back to build a single smaller data center, cooling optimism around the breadth and scale of supercharging America’s AI computing capacity, souring sentiment on chips and broader tech.
Chipmaker Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) is set to report later today after the closing bell.
Pace of earnings picks up this week
The pace of the quarterly earnings season picks up in the coming days, with over 85% of S&P 500 companies set to report returns this week.
Roughly 12% of the S&P 500 has reported during the relatively young earnings season. Of those, 86% have beat their per-share earnings expectations and 67% have delivered higher-than-anticipated sales, helping the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite indices both to record levels in the prior session.
Earlier in the session, Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) stock slipped nearly 1% after the soft drinks giant grapples with tariff-driven headwinds, even while it reported better-than-expected second-quarter profit and said it expects to post adjusted per-share earnings growth at the high end of its prior guidance.
General Motors (NYSE:GM) stock fell after the auto giant’s second-quarter profit declined significantly from last year due to weaker performance in its crucial North American market.
Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) stock rose after the defense company raised its annual profit forecast, betting on sustained demand for its military aircraft and defense systems as geopolitical tensions simmer.
Philip Morris (NYSE:PM) stock fell after the tobacco giant reported second-quarter revenue that came in below expectations despite strong growth in its smoke-free business.
DR Horton Inc (NYSE:DHI) stock rose strongly after the home construction company reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that surpassed expectations, delivering 23,160 homes during the quarter, exceeding the high end of its guidance range.
Medical (TASE:BLWV) devices company Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) will post returns after the markets close.
The main focus this week, as far as earnings are concerned, will be on second-quarter prints from Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), the first of Wall Street’s so-called Magnificent Seven to report this earnings season.
Ahead of Tesla’s results, the California New Car Dealers Association reported Tuesday that Tesla registrations in California fell 21.1% in the second quarter.
Both prints are due on Wednesday, and will be closely watched for more cues on the effects of Trump’s tariffs on corporate earnings.
Trump tariffs, interest rate caution persists
While the Wall Street indices did hit a series of record highs over the past week, the pace of gains was seen slowing in recent sessions, amid persistent caution over Trump’s tariffs and uncertainty over the future path of interest rates.
Trump has outlined tariff rates ranging from 20% to 50% against major U.S. trading partners, all of which are set to take effect from August 1. The president also imposed a 50% duty on copper imports, and threatened a 200% duty on pharmaceuticals.
This left markets on edge over the inflationary impact of Trump’s tariffs, especially given that the Fed has cited the tariffs as its main motivation behind keeping interest rates unchanged in the near-term.
The Fed is set to meet next week and is widely expected to leave rates unchanged once more, even amid persistent criticism from Trump and his allies.
Jerome Powell is set to speak at a Fed conference in Washington D.C. later Tuesday, although it remains unclear whether the Fed chair will comment on monetary policy, given that the address comes during the Fed’s blackout period before its end-July meeting.
Peter Nurse, Ambar Warrick contributed to this article