On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were higher, with the benchmark S&P index registering a record close, as investors gauged a flurry of major earnings releases, including results from airplane maker Boeing and shipping company United Parcel Service, which said it would cut up to 30,000 jobs in operational roles this year.
The Dow Industrials were pulled lower by a 1.6% decline in Boeing, along with a drop of about 20% in UnitedHealth, which said its 2026 revenue would shrink.
Health insurers were lower overall in the wake of a lower-than-expected Medicare reimbursement proposal for 2027 from the government. The decline in UnitedHealth accounted for roughly 420 points of downside pressure on the Dow.
Markets were also awaiting earnings this week from heavyweight names that are part of the so-called Magnificent Seven, including Microsoft, Apple, Tesla and Meta Platforms, while the Fed is scheduled to release its policy statement on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 408.99 points, or 0.83%, to 49,003.41, the S&P 500 rose 28.37 points, or 0.41%, to 6,978.60 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 215.74 points, or 0.91%, to 23,817.10.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 8.92 points, or 0.85%, to 1,053.09 and was on track for a fifth straight daily gain, its longest run of gains this year, after reaching an intraday record of 1,053.88. The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed up 0.58%, boosted in part by a 1.8% jump in bank shares.
South Korea scrambled to assure the US it remained committed to implementing a trade deal after President Donald Trump said he would hike tariffs on autos and other imports from its ally, citing a delay in enacting the pact reached last year. It was the latest tariff threat from Trump after he announced plans to issue levies on several European countries last week over Greenland.
The Korean won strengthened 0.97% against the greenback to 1,431.85 per dollar after falling as much as 0.63%.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.9% to 96.23 and was on track for its biggest daily percentage drop since April, after falling to a four-year low of 95.566.
The euro was up 0.81% at US$1.1975. The greenback has struggled this month due to a range of factors, including Trump’s erratic policymaking and attempts to erode the independence of the Fed. It weakened to a session low on Tuesday after Trump said it was “doing great.”
“The dollar has had over the past ten days one of the biggest moves it’s had in the past five years… It puts a huge pressure on commodities, and we’re seeing oil up. We’re seeing commodities up, and you’re seeing all those stocks moving up in a very aggressive way,” said Adam Rich, deputy chief investment officer and portfolio manager at Vaughan Nelson Investment Management in Houston.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 1.23% to 152.26 after hitting 152.08, its lowest level since Oct 29, while Sterling strengthened 1.14% to US$1.3833.
The yen had come under pressure after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ascended to her position in October, in part due to worries over Japan’s government debt as Takaichi based her campaign for next month’s elections on expanded stimulus measures.
But the Japanese currency strengthened sharply on Friday as chatter about rate checks by the New York Fed as well as the Bank of Japan indicated a heightened risk of joint US-Japan intervention to halt the yen’s slide.
Markets are also awaiting the latest policy statement from the Fed, although the central bank is widely expected to keep rates unchanged, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.
However, the nomination of a potential replacement for Fed Chair Jerome Powell in May, the effort to fire Governor Lisa Cook, and a criminal investigation by the Trump administration into the central bank chief all loom over the meeting.
As geopolitical tensions continue to affect markets, they have buttressed precious metals such as gold. Spot gold was up 3.19% at US$5,174.09 an ounce after reaching an intraday record of US$5,186.59. Spot silver surged 7.93% to US$121.13 an ounce, after hitting a record US$117.69 on Monday.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday they see “meaningful upside risk” to their forecast of gold to hit US$5,400 by December while Deutsche Bank said it thinks US$6,000 “is achievable with a weaker dollar this year.”
US crude settled up 2.9% at US$62.39 a barrel and Brent rose to settle at US$67.57 per barrel, up 3.02% on the day, as producers reeled from a winter storm that stunted crude production and drove US Gulf Coast crude exports to zero over the weekend.