US stock markets softened on Tuesday. By the close in New York, the Dow Jones reached 51,670 points, marking a 0.4% decrease compared to the prior trading day. Just before that, the broader S&P 500 was down a few points at approximately 7,805 points, while the technology-focused Nasdaq 100 closed at about 30,569 points, dropping 0.3%.
Despite quarterly results from Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs-which were better than expected at the beginning of the reporting season-stocks in the financial sector either rose modestly or fell entirely. Market sentiment continues to be heavily influenced by high fossil fuel prices, geopolitical uncertainties, and growing skepticism regarding the promises of Artificial Intelligence (AI). These AI concerns were further fueled on Tuesday by a warning from Anthropic, the developer of Claude, suggesting that small AI models could autonomously replicate on poorly secured smart-home devices.
In other markets, the European common currency gained strength on Tuesday evening; the Euro traded at $1.1198, meaning the Dollar cost 0.8930 Euros.
Meanwhile, commodities showed mixed action. The price of gold weakened, trading at $4,163 per fine ounce in the evening, a drop of 0.2%. This translates to €119.52 per gram. Oil prices also fell, as a barrel of North Sea Brent cost $106.10 at 10 p.m. Central European Time, which represented a decrease of 0.5% or 58 cents from the previous closing figures.
