These doubts were furthered by the minutes of the Fed’s early-November meeting, released on Tuesday. The minutes showed that policymakers were divided over future rate cuts, and recommended a gradual easing in rates. 

Tech gains help Wall St weather Trump tariff threat 

Gains in heavyweight technology stocks saw Wall Street indexes rise past Trump’s tariff threats to hit record highs on Tuesday. 

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% to a record high of 19,172.81 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% to a record high of 44,860.31 points. The NASDAQ Composite rose 0.6% to 19,172.81 points, closing just below recent peaks. 

Five of the Magnificent Seven stocks closed higher on Tuesday, led by an over 3% jump in Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) after Bloomberg reported the firm plans to trim its dependence on NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) by developing its own custom artificial intelligence chips.

After hours movers: HP, Dell slide 

Among major aftermarket movers, HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) slid 7.2% after it issued disappointing guidance for 2025, while Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DELL) tumbled 10% after its quarter revenue missed some estimates.

Autodesk Inc (NASDAQ:ADSK) shed nearly 10% even as its earnings beat estimates, while Workday Inc (NASDAQ:WDAY) fell 8% on disappointing guidance.

“One risk to the outlook is potential tariff increases, most of which we would expect to be passed along to consumers. However, we would expect tariffs to cause a one-time increase in the price level rather than triggering sustained higher inflation over the medium term,” UBS said. 

UBS said the Fed was more likely to leave rates near 4% if inflation remained sticky. 

On the U.S. policy front, UBS uncertainty was “unusually high” ahead of Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

While the Republicans did maintain a slim lead in both chambers of Congress, it still remained to be seen if they could pass the sweeping policy changes promised by Trump.