Wall Street inched to another record following some mixed profit reports, as General Motors and other big US companies gave updates on how much President Donald Trump’s tariffs are hurting or helping them.

The S&P 500 added 0.1 per cent to the all-time high it had set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 179 points, or 0.4 per cent, though the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.4 per cent from its own record.

The Australian sharemarket is set to rise, with futures at 6.59am AEST pointing to a gain of 40 points, or 0.5 per cent, at the open. The ASX edged 0.1 per cent higher on Tuesday. The Australian dollar is higher. It was fetching 65.54 US cents at 7.22am AEST.

General Motors dropped 8.1 per cent despite reporting a stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected. The automaker said it’s still expecting a $US4 billion to $US5 billion ($US6.1 billion- $US7.6 billion) hit to its results over 2025 because of tariffs and that it hopes to mitigate 30 per cent of that. GM also said it will feel more pain because of tariffs in the current quarter than it did during the spring.

That helped to offset big gains for some homebuilders after they reported stronger profits for the spring than Wall Street had forecast. D.R. Horton rallied 17 per cent, and PulteGroup jumped 11.5 per cent. That was even as both companies said homebuyers are continuing to deal with challenging conditions, including higher mortgage rates and an uncertain economy.

So far, the US economy seems to be powering through the uncertainty created by Trump’s on-and-off tariffs. Many of Trump’s proposed taxes on imports are currently on pause, and the next big deadline is August 1. Talks are underway on possible trade deals with other countries that could lower the stiff proposals before they kick in.

Trump said he reached a trade agreement with the Philippines following a meeting Tuesday at the White House, that will see the US slightly drop its tariff rate for the Philippines without paying import taxes for what it sells there.

Companies are already feeling effects. Genuine Parts, the Atlanta-based company that sells auto and industrial replacement parts around the world, trimmed its profit forecast for the full year in order to incorporate “all US tariffs currently in effect,” along with its updated expectations for business conditions in the second half of the year.

Its stock rose 7.6 per cent after it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

RTX fell 1.6 per cent after cutting its forecast for profit in 2025 but also raising its forecast for revenue. It made the changes to incorporate what CEO Chris Calio called “our current assessment of the impact of tariffs,” along with other changes anticipated from Washington’s recent approval of big tax changes.

Coca-Cola slipped 0.6 per cent even though it delivered a stronger profit than forecast. Its revenue for the quarter only edged past analysts’ expectations, and it said that higher prices that it charged helped offset sales of fewer cases during the spring. The company also said it’s launching a new Coke product for American consumers made with US cane sugar, rather that corn fructose syrup, this year.

Tuesday’s announcement came less than a week after President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that the company agreed to use cane sugar in its US Coke beverages. On a call with analysts, chief executive officer James Quincey thanked the president for his “enthusiasm for our Coca-Cola brand.”

Opendoor Technologies, a company that caught interest among investors looking for the next “meme stock” that could rise regardless of how its profits are doing, lost momentum and dropped 10.3 per cent to $US2.88. It had climbed as high as $US3.99 in the morning, more than quintuple its price of 78 cents from just two Fridays ago.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 4.02 points to 6,309.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 179.37 to 44,502.44, and the Nasdaq composite fell 81.49 to 20,892.68.

In the bond market, Treasury yields sank as traders continue to expect the Federal Reserve to wait until September at the earliest to resume cutting interest rates.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been insisting he wants to see more data about how Trump’s tariffs are affecting inflation and the economy before the Fed makes its next move. That’s despite often angry criticism from Trump, who has been lobbying for more cuts to rates to happen sooner.

Powell has been insisting he wants to see more data about how Trump’s tariffs are affecting inflation and the economy before the Fed makes its next move. That’s despite often angry criticism from Trump, who has been lobbying for more cuts to rates to happen sooner.

Powell is a “numbskull” who has kept interest rates too high, but he will be out in eight months, Trump said at a news conference on Tuesday.

“I think he’s done a bad job, but he’s going to be out pretty soon anyway. In eight months, he’ll be out,” he said from a meeting at the White House with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Powell’s term as Fed chair runs through May 15, and he has repeatedly said he will not leave the post early. Eight months would mean Powell would remain in place until mid-March; it was not immediately clear why Trump picked that time frame.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.34 per cent from 4.38 per cent late Monday.

In overseas markets, Japan’s benchmark jumped and then fell back as it reopened from a holiday Monday following the ruling coalition’s loss of its upper house majority in Sunday’s election. The Nikkei 225 shed 0.1 per cent.

Analysts said the market initially climbed on relief that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to stay in office despite a loss for his ruling coalition in an upper-house election Sunday. But the results have only added to political uncertainty and left his government without the heft needed to push through legislation.

A breakthrough in trade talks with the US might win Ishiba a reprieve, but so far there’s been scant sign of progress in negotiating away the threat of higher tariffs on Japan’s exports to the US beginning August 1.

Indexes were mixed elsewhere in Asia and Europe.

AP

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