Wall Street Ends Mixed Amid Signs of Iran Progress

U.S. stocks ended mixed on Tuesday amid signs of progress in negotiations as the minutes ticked down to President Donald Trump's deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

All three major U.S. stock indexes pared during the last hour of trading when Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on X that diplomatic efforts for peaceful settlement of the ongoing war in the Middle East were progressing steadily while he urged Trump to extend his Iran deadline for two weeks and requested that Iran open the Strait for the same timeframe as a goodwill gesture.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq snapped their respective winning streaks after four straight days of gains.

"Investors are calibrating as they try to read into the president's messaging and predict the degree (to which) he will follow through with some of his rhetoric in terms of the ultimatum," said Matthew Keator, managing partner in the Keator Group, a wealth management firm in Lenox, Massachusetts. "How much of it is posturing, and how much of it is telegraphing what he will actually do?"

"Investors need to make sure that they make whatever necessary adjustments for their personal circumstances," Keator added.

While attacks on Iran intensified, the country had not yet allowed traffic to resume through the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway, despite Trump's threats if a deal is not reached by the end of Tuesday.

Oil prices have surged since the United States and Israel declared war on Iran on February 28, rattling markets, igniting fears of rising inflation and dampening hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year.

Front month U.S. WTI crude backed off from session highs to settle up 0.5%, while Brent crude settled down 0.5%.

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said he was worried that the war would drive inflation higher while dampening the economy, resulting in a stagflationary shock and putting the central bank in a bind.

On the economic front, a report from the Commerce Department showed new orders for durable goods decreased more than analysts expected in February, before the onset of the war.

Later in the week, the Labor Department's consumer price index (CPI) will provide a glimpse at the extent to which the war on Iran has affected inflation.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 6.09 points, or 0.09%, to end at 6,617.92 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 28.46 points, or 0.13%, to 22,024.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 78.54 points, or 0.17%, to 46,591.34.

UnitedHealth jumped and peers Humana and CVS Health advanced after the U.S. government announced on Monday it would raise payments to private insurers offering Medicare Advantage plans to older adults, an increase from the near-flat change proposed earlier.

Shares of Apple dropped after Nikkei Asia reported that the gadget maker's long-awaited foldable phone is encountering engineering setbacks.

Chipmaker Broadcom rose after signing a long-term deal with Alphabet to develop its AI chips and other components. Intel rose after the company said it would join Elon Musk's Terafab AI chip complex project along with SpaceX, Tesla and xAI.