After fluctuating between little gains and losses during erratic trading as investors evaluated the most recent batch of company earnings, economic data, and trade policy developments, U.S. equities ended Tuesday’s trading session firmly in positive territory.

While indicating progress on trade agreements with other nations, such as Japan and India, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that tariffs might cause China to lose 10 million jobs in the near future. The Trump administration’s April 2 tariff pronouncements on nations worldwide have fueled investor concerns about swiftly slowing global growth and a resurgence of price pressures, putting the world’s two largest economies at the center of a global trade war. Just before the clock struck midnight on Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced that U.S. President Donald Trump would sign an order granting automakers that manufacture cars in the United States relief from a portion of his new 25% vehicle tariffs. This would give them time to bring their supply chains for parts back home.

General Motors shares which closed 0.6% lower after the firm posted solid quarterly earnings but revoked its year projection. Automaker shares did not react well to the potentially lesser tariffs. The paint manufacturer Sherwin-Williams surged 4.8% after its quarterly profit exceeded projections, and Honeywell gained 5.4% after reporting an increase in adjusted profit for the first quarter, topped the blue-chip Dow. Coca-Cola, another Dow component and closed 0.8% higher after exceeding earnings and revenue projections.

According to Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Troy, Michigan, “a lot of the economic data is going to be mixed, it’s going to be really hard to discern tariff impacts probably for the next month or two.” “Corporate profits, the companies that are most impacted by tariffs, are doing what we would expect, they’re cutting guidance or they’re suspending guidance.” Economic data indicated that the trade scenario was having an increasing impact. A separate report from the Conference Board revealed that its consumer confidence index fell to its lowest reading since May 2020, while job openings indicated a relatively stable labor market. In March, the U.S. trade deficit in goods widened to a record high as businesses stepped up efforts to bring in merchandise ahead of tariffs. According to Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, “Trump’s tariffs have pushed expectations off a cliff.” “Maybe the silver lining is that it’ll be hard to not see some improvement in expectations over the next few months.”

The S&P 500 (.SPX) climbed 32.08 points, or 0.58%, to 5,560.83, the Nasdaq Composite gained 95.19 points, or 0.55%, to 17,461.32, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 300.03 points, or 0.75%, to 40,527.62. Investors are likely to focus on any indications of a tariff impact as more economic data is due this week, culminating in Friday’s important government payrolls report and earnings from several of the “Magnificent Seven” group of megacap stocks, including Apple and Microsoft.

United Parcel Service fell 0.4% following its quarterly results and announced that it would eliminate 20,000 jobs in order to reduce deliveries for Amazon. In recent weeks, equities have shown signs of stabilizing, with the S&P 500 recording its sixth consecutive session of gains, its longest win streak since a seven-day run in November, even if all three of the major indexes are still in negative territory for the year. The S&P 500 index’s year-end objective was lowered by HSBC, the most recent brokerage to do so, from 6,700 to 5,600.

Following the announcement of a $40 billion stock repurchase program, Wells Fargo with a 2.4% gain. On the NYSE and the Nasdaq, advancing items exceeded decliners by a ratio of 2.38 to 1 and 1.55 to 1, respectively. The Nasdaq Composite saw 37 new highs and 59 new lows, while the S&P 500 saw six new 52-week highs and six new lows. In contrast to the average of 19.46 billion shares for the entire session during the previous 20 trading days, the volume on U.S. exchanges was 20.02 billion shares.