Tuesday's relatively muted action in markets follows losses on Monday when Trump posted a flurry of letters to social media that announced new tariff rates ranging from 25% to 40% on more than a dozen countries starting August 1.

The Nasdaq composite bumped up 0.1% in recent action. The S&P 500 was flat. Small caps still outpaced the market, with the Russell 2000 index climbing 1%. The Russell ended a six-day winning streak Monday.