Investing.com - Wall Street struggled for direction on Tuesday as trade tensions lingered and tech stocks rose.
The S&P 500 was up two points or 0.08% to 2,749.08 as of 9:44 AM ET (13:44 GMT) while the Dow composite decreased over 15 points or 0.06% to 24,798.49 and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite rose 21 points or 0.28% to 7,627.94.
Trade tensions remained in focus as the U.S. and China ended with no agreement over the weekend and leaders in the Group of Seven nations rebuked President Donald Trump for going ahead with planned metal tariffs against U.S. allies. Meanwhile Mexico retaliated against the U.S. on Tuesday by slapping a steep tariff on agricultural products, including pork and bourbon.
Technology stocks were among the top gainers, with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) up 0.60% as details from its developer conference were in focus. Social media firm Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) surged 3.81% on news that it was replacing Monsanto (NYSE:MON) in the S&P 500 on Thursday. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) rose 0.58% and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) gained 0.43%.
Elsewhere luxury car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) dipped 0.61% while Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) slumped 3.05% amid news that its executive chairman Howard Schultz was stepping down. Walmart (NYSE:WMT) fell 0.59% and General Electric (NYSE:GE) decreased 0.98%.
In Europe stocks were mixed. Germany’s DAX rose 101 points or 0.80% while in France the CAC 40 increased 20 points or 0.37% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 43 points or 0.56%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 10 points or 0.29% while Spain’s IBEX 35 rallied 21 points or 0.22%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.02% to $1,297.10 troy ounce while crude oil futures decreased 0.53% to $64.41 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.15% to 94.16.
