S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq mixed as CPI inflation eases, JPMorgan kicks off earnings

Heavy machinery manufacturing giant Caterpillar (CAT) crossed $300 billion in market capitalization on Tuesday as the company’s business has strengthened due to demand for AI infrastructure.

Shares picked up 1.7% through morning trading to push Caterpillar over the line.

The industrials sector (XLI) has outperformed the S&P 500 (^GSPC) over the past year, returning 23% against the S&P 500’s 19.5% gain.

As demand for data centers and power equipment has ballooned, industrials sector companies such as Caterpillar and GE Vernova (GEV) have seen their order books explode.

Power generation machinery drove the biggest sales jump in Caterpillar’s book for the third quarter, according to the company’s earnings report, as that infrastructure has become essential to the AI buildout. Shares jumped 11% after the release.

Caterpillar is expected to report fourth quarter earnings on Jan. 29, while GE Vernova is expected to report a day earlier, on Jan. 28.

Microsoft, one of the leading AI “hyperscalers” in the country, said the company will work to make sure the towns and cities near its data center development sites are not adversely affected.

Our Dan Howley reports:

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Shares of Boeing (BA) picked up 2% on Tuesday after the aerospace company published fourth quarter deliveries data late in the morning.

Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, delivered 117 737-series commercial aircraft; 10 767-series airplanes; six 777-series airplanes; and 27 787-series airplanes.

The numbers are largely in line with the company’s third quarter deliveries, producing an aggregate total of commercial airplanes delivered at 160.

In military craft, Boeing delivered 37 units in the fourth quarter, compared to 32 in the third.

President Trump told reporters that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is either “incompetent” or “crooked” on Tuesday, adding more furor to the news that the Justice Department is pursuing a criminal investigation into the Fed chair over renovation cost overruns.

Bloomberg reports:

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US new home sales remained largely unchanged in October, maintaining the momentum that kicked off in September.

New single-family home sales slowed by 0.1% month over month to a rate of 737,000 in October, according to data released Tuesday morning by the Census Bureau that was delayed by the government shutdown. Year over year, however, October’s rate is up 18.7%

Economists had expected a rate of 715,000 for the month, according to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

While the pace of sales remains elevated after a 3.8% jump in September, the contract signings made no real impact on housing stocks month to month. New home inventory remained unchanged from the previous month at 488,000 houses in October, up 1.7% year over year.

The median single-family home price was $392,300, according to the Census Bureau.

The US stock market opened on shaky ground to kick off the trading session on Tuesday morning as a calmer-than-expected inflation reading strengthened odds that the Federal Reserve will hold rates steady.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell by roughly 0.2% in the largest move, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) picked up a bit less than 0.1% and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) hovered around the flat line.

The key headline for investors on Tuesday morning was the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “core” CPI reading for the month of December, which came in below forecasts with a 0.2% rise over the previous month and a 2.6% increase over the previous year, marking the lowest annual rise since early 2021. Headline consumer prices rose 0.3% over the prior month and 2.7% over the prior year, in line with economists’ expectations.

Oil prices crossed $65 for the first time since November on Tuesday morning, as a hodgepodge of geopolitical tensions pushed risk premiums higher.

Futures on Brent crude (BZ=F), the international pricing benchmark, jumped nearly 2% to cross $65 and trade just above that level, while futures on the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude (CL=F) picked up to trade above $60.50.

After spending 2025 consistently falling, oil prices have opened 2026 on a rally as geopolitical shocks have put upward pressure on prices.

Prices on Brent crude have jumped by more than 7% in the past five trading sessions after the US’s extradition of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and full-scale takeover of the South American country’s faltering industry. Prices on WTI have picked up about 6% over the same period.

As tensions have somewhat stabilized in Venezuela and shipments have gotten underway — commodities trading houses Vitol and Trafigura have begun moving Venezuelan crude out of the country, and shipping US naphtha to Venezuela — attention has turned to Iran, the perennial oil focal point in the Middle East.

Mass popular protests against the theocratic Iranian regime under the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have swept across the country since the end of December, triggering a wave of disruption and violent pushback from the government.

Iran is a crucial point of leverage for global oil prices for two reasons. The country produces more than 3 million barrels per day, and is sitting on more than 200 billion barrels of proved reserves, ranking only behind Venezuela and Saudi Arabia globally.

Iran also largely controls the Strait of Hormuz, a key global chokepoint for oil flows. In 2024, an average 20 million barrels per day of oil moved through the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Any attempts by Iran to close the strait would put immediate and severe upward pressure on oil prices.

The parent company of U.S. Bank is set to acquire the brokerage BTIG in a bid to expand the financial services firm’s purview into investments and trading.

Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp (USB) will acquire BTIG in a transaction valued at $1 billion, the company announced in a press release on Tuesday morning. Shares in U.S. Bancorp lost roughly 0.8% in premarket trading, a typical movement for the acquiring party of an M&A announcement.

U.S. Bancorp’s push into investment banking and trading comes as the trading desks of the country’s biggest banks outperformed expectations in the third quarter.

Revenues from equities, fixed income, currency, and commodity trading at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in the fourth quarter of 2025 rose 15% from the previous year, surpassing analyst expectations, according to earnings released Tuesday morning.

Here’s what JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said about the Trump vs. Powell battle on a call I was just on:

“First, I just want to say that I don’t agree with everything that the Fed has done. I do have enormous respect for Jay Powell, the man. Everyone we know believes in Fed independence, and so do we. And anything that chips away at that is probably not a great idea. And in my view, it will have the reverse consequences. It will raise inflation expectations and probably increase rates over time.”

BNY (BNY) CEO Robin Vince commented on concerns about Federal Reserve independence from the DOJ’s Powell probe, speaking on a reporter call post-earnings:

US investment bank JPMorgan (JPM) posted fourth-quarter results on Tuesday that beat revenue estimates but missed earnings expectations, as net income was hit following its deal to take over the Apple Card (AAPL) from Goldman Sachs (GS).

Yahoo Finance senior reporter David Hollerith looks at the latest earnings release from JPM.

Read more here.

Delta Airlines’ (DAL) stock sank as much as 5% before the bell on Tuesday despite posting upbeat Q4 results, as its forecast fell below estimates.

The airline company said growth in the premium business and lack of certain headwinds would propel its business forward in 2026.

Yahoo Finance senior reporter Pras Subramanian delves into the latest results from Delta.

Read more here.

Intel (INTC) stock rose 3% before the bell on Tuesday. KeyBanc analysts raised their rating on the chipmaker to Overweight from Sector Weight due to strong demand for their central processing units.

Revvity (RVTY) stock climbed 5% during premarket trading on Tuesday after the health company raised its full-year outlook ahead of its earnings release in February.

MP Materials (MP) stock edged higher on Tuesday by 3%. The rare earths company was awarded funding from the US government for a $900 million manufacturing facility last year, and experts believe companies like MP could get a boost from the US’s latest move in Venezuela.

Gold (GC=F) steadied close to another record on Tuesday, as investors focused on the latest attacks on the Federal Reserve by the Trump administration, which have raised some concerns over the Fed’s independence.

Bloomberg News reports:

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