US stocks shuffled between small gains and losses on Tuesday, pressured by a rise in bond yields as President Donald Trump's decision to fire a Federal Reserve governor revived concerns about the central bank's independence.
The S&P 500 Index was down 0.1% as of 9:35 a.m. in New York, after suffering losses in six of the past seven sessions. The benchmark equities gauge sits within 0.4% of a record. The Nasdaq 100 Index fell 0.1%, led by declines in Charter Communications Inc. A basket tracking the Magnificent Seven stocks including Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., was flat. Nvidia Corp. rose 0.5%.
Among individual shares, Interactive Brokers climbed 0.9% after the S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that the automated-electronic broker will join the S&P 500 Index before trading opens Aug. 28, replacing Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. EchoStar soared nearly 80% after AT&T announced an agreement to buy spectrum licenses from the satellite broadband communication company for about $23 billion.
In an unprecedented move, Trump moved to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook following allegations that she falsified mortgage documents. No charges have been filed against her and Trump's action is likely to face legal challenges. Still, it's resulted in investor unease about what it may mean for the outlook on monetary policy.
"If successful, this would create the second vacancy on the board in less than a month and would allow the president to move that body in a direction more to his liking," Michael Feroli, chief US economist at JPMorgan Securities, wrote in a note to clients. "However, it is not obvious that he will be successful in removing Cook."
Now traders are looking ahead to Nvidia's earnings, due on Wednesday, and a key inflation report later this week for further insight on the artificial intelligence euphoria that has powered US stocks to records on the potential profit growth, and the path of interest-rate cuts.
On the economic front, US orders for business equipment increased in July by more than projected, suggesting companies are moving forward on investment plans as some of the trade and tax policy uncertainty gradually diminishes. A monthly the Conference Board's consumer confidence data is expected later in the session.
In trade developments, Trump threatened to impose fresh tariffs and export restrictions on advanced technology and semiconductors in retaliation against other nations' digital services taxes that hit American technology companies.
Elsewhere, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. rose 3.6% after the company and IBM announced a quantum-centric supercomputing partnership. Semtech Corp. rallied 14% after the semiconductor device company reported second-quarter results that beat expectations and gave an outlook that's in line with expectations.
Eli Lilly & Co. was up 2.3% after its experimental obesity pill helped patients lose 9.6% of their body weight in a trial that moves the company one step closer to a potential approval. And Olaplex Holdings fell 1.3% after announcing the acquisition of Purvala Bioscience, a Boston-based biotech company.