US stocks rallied on Tuesday after President Donald Trump temporarily paused tariffs on Mexico and Canada, but not on China, which gave Wall Street a break from escalating trade tensions and helped major indexes snap a two-day losing streak.
The S&P 500 saw a 0.72% increase, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged by 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 1.35%. Investors got a short-term boost as the tariff news hit the wires.
Then corporate performance on Wall Street immediately soured the mood.
Stock markets results come in
Alphabet’s fourth-quarter results missed expectations, while AMD’s data center sales also fell short of projections, so shares of both companies tanked in extended trading.
Tech stocks helped push the S&P 500 into the green despite weak earnings. Apple rose 2.1%, while Nvidia added 1.7%. Alphabet fell 3.4% after missing analyst expectations. AMD also saw its stock drop by 4% as its data center business underperformed.
Banks had a mixed session. Bank of America rose 1.08%, and Wells Fargo gained 1.7%. JPMorgan lagged, slipping 0.23%. Payment giants Visa and Mastercard saw slight declines, while health tech saw a rebound. Eli Lilly’s stock rose nearly 2%.
Meanwhile, global financial markets kept a close watch on US trade policy. South Korea’s Kospi surged over 1%, while Japan’s Nikkei increased by 0.1%. China’s CSI 300 couldn’t catch a break, falling 0.6%.
Gold prices surged as geopolitical fears grew. Spot gold reached $2,854 an ounce, a record high after Trump imposed a fresh 10% tariff on Chinese imports.
Beijing’s response was more subdued this time, unlike the tit-for-tat trade war retaliation seen during Trump’s first term. Still, uncertainty about future negotiations spurred haven demand.
Trump brought on more tensions by proposing that the US take over reconstruction efforts in Gaza. He made the announcement during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Crypto markets plummet
While Wall Street found some footing, crypto markets crumbled. Bitcoin dropped 1.23% to $98,160, and Ethereum fell 1.22% to $2,790.50, while Solana plunged by 3.67% to $204.78. Over $341 million in crypto liquidations were recorded in the last 24 hours, down nearly 29% in the past 24 hours, according to data from Coinglass.
Futures trading volume dropped by almost 30% to $248.2 billion, while open interest decreased by 2.65% to $114.28 billion. Coinglass data shows over-leveraged traders being caught off guard by Wall Street’s weak earnings.
As liquidations got worse, prices spiraled down even more, forcing many traders to close positions. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell by 25% to 54, which is pretty bearish.
Bitcoin’s technical indicators offered little hope. A double top pattern near $98,400 confirmed bearish momentum, with prices struggling to hold key support levels between $97,200 and $97,800.
If liquidations continue, BTC could retest $96,500 in the short term. The On-Balance Volume (OBV) indicator shows weak buying interest as seen in the chart above.
Some in the industry are still extremely bullish in the long term. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said, “To give you a sense of how big the upcoming bull market is for crypto, we just absorbed a downturn that was larger than the collapse of Luna or FTX and have already nearly recovered: 710 billion in losses and 740,000 traders liquidated in 24 hours. 2025 is Crypto’s year.”
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/us-stocks-rise-crypto-falls-wall-street/