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S&P 500 CHOPS ITS WAY TO A SIXTH-STRAIGHT DAY OF GAINS

U.S. stocks ended higher on Tuesday, after alternating between modest gains and losses in choppy trading as investors assessed the latest round of corporate earnings, economic data and changes on the trade policy front.

Regarding trade, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled progress on trade deals with a number of countries including Japan and India.

Late in the session, President Trump signed an order giving automakers building vehicles in the U.S. relief from part of his new 25% vehicle tariffs to allow them time to bring parts supply chains back home.

Automaker shares showed little reaction to the softer tariffs, with General Motors GM.N ending off around 0.6% after it reported strong quarterly results, but pulled its annual forecast.

Additionally, the Trump administration is working on changes to a Biden-era rule that would limit global access to AI chips, including possibly doing away with its splitting the world into tiers that help determine how many advanced semiconductors a country can obtain, three sources familiar with the matter said.

With this, Nvidia NVDA.O ended up about 0.3%.

Meanwhile, some economic data pointed to an increasing impact from trade issues. The U.S. trade deficit in goods widened to a record high in March, while a separate report from the Conference Board showed its consumer confidence index dropped to its lowest reading since May 2020.

In any event, the S&P 500 index closed up for a sixth-straight session, which is its longest win streak since a seven-day rise in November 2024.

And heading into the final trading day of April, the benchmark index is showing a loss of just 0.91%. This, after being down as much as 13.84% for the month at its April 7 intraday low.

Here is Tuesday's closing snapshot:

(Terence Gabriel)

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