Trading on Tuesday left the S&P 500 little changed, with semiconductor shares extending a stretch of declines and market participants weighing uneven quarterly earnings from Citigroup alongside those of other large American banks.

The PHLX semiconductor index extended its losing run to five straight sessions on Monday, edging down 1.2%, as remarks from Broadcom chief executive Hock Tan — in which he likened portions of capital flowing into the sector to speculative behaviour — added to already-present unease around valuations, while separate reporting on advances by Chinese memory chip maker CXMT brought fresh scrutiny to the competitive outlook for the industry. Shares of Micron Technology retreated 5.4 percent, while Applied Materials gave back 8 percent of their value. Shares in Broadcom ended the session largely unchanged.

Shares of Citigroup fell 4.1% while Goldman Sachs edged up 0.2%, with each bank having posted quarterly earnings that cleared analyst forecasts. Shares of Wells Fargo retreated 2.2% after the bank's net interest income came in below analyst forecasts, while JPMorgan Chase traded in choppy fashion following an earnings shortfall that the institution rarely posts.

Shares of Apple touched a new within-session peak, with the price reaching $348.15 before the trading day closed. Shares in the company behind the iPhone were trading up 0.6% at $343.05, a price that placed its total market capitalisation at $5 trillion.

LSEG data show Wall Street forecasters expecting third-quarter S&P 500 profits to climb by more than 30%, with AI-driven technology firms accounting for much of that projected lift. Positive earnings expectations have helped cushion markets against anxieties tied to US-Iran tensions, climbing bond yields, and oil-driven inflation pressures, though Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities, noted that trading is likely to remain uneven until the reporting season picks up pace.

Trading in the S&P 500 left the index fractionally lower, with the benchmark hovering near 7,805.51. Trading on Wall Street left the Nasdaq at 27,210.72 after a 0.13% retreat, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average also finishing lower — off 0.33% to settle at 51,677.05.

Technology shares tied to artificial intelligence drove the S&P 500 to a 14% gain through 2026. Roughly half of S&P 500 components have posted losses on the year, and the index's middle stock has gained under 5%. The S&P 500's price-to-earnings ratio has slipped to roughly 19 times forward earnings — a valuation floor not seen since 2023 — as investor appetite for AI-driven corporate profit growth weighs on the broader market multiple.

Over the five most recent trading sessions, the PHLX chip index shed more than 8% of its value, though it still holds a gain exceeding 70% for the calendar year to date.

Healthcare stocks retreated broadly on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 sector gauge losing 1.3% and Johnson & Johnson shedding 6% even after its quarterly earnings cleared analyst expectations. Bumble's stock jumped 56% after the dating app disclosed a $1.3 billion deal to go private. Domino's Pizza stock retreated 3.2% on the same trading day the chain lowered its full-year revenue outlook.

Within the S&P 500, falling shares held a narrow edge over advancing ones, with roughly 1.1 losers for every stock that posted a gain. On the S&P 500, 16 benchmarks touched fresh peak territory while five fell to new troughs; across Nasdaq-listed issues, 36 reached all-time highs against a considerably wider pool of 370 that sank to new lows.