U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday to snap a two-session streak of gains, as investors exercised caution ahead of a monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve, while gauging the potential impact of President Donald Trump's tariff policies.

The Fed will release its latest policy statement on Wednesday, where the central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged, along with its updated summary of economic projections (SEP).

Market Snapshot

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 260.32 points, or 0.62%, to 41,581.31, the S&P 500 lost 60.46 points, or 1.07%, to 5,614.66 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 304.55 points, or 1.71%, to 17,504.12.

Market Movers

Nvidia - Nvidia was down 3.4%. Shares of the leading making of artificial-intelligence chips fell 1.8% on Monday, the first day of the company’s GTC AI conference. They continued to decline after CEO Jensen Huangbegan his keynote speech on Tuesday,during which he unveiled an expanded partnership between Nvidia and General Motors. Huang said the auto maker would use Nvidia’s AI to train manufacturing models and optimize GM’s factory planning and robotics. GM stock fell 0.7% to $48.67.

Tesla - Tesla, the No. 1 U.S. electric-vehicle company, fell 5.3% to $225.31. It closed down 4.8% on Monday. The stock has declined for eight straight weeks. Tesla powered higher after Donald Trump was elected president in November, with investors hopeful Trump’s second term in office would benefit the auto maker, partly under regulations designed to usher in an era of self-driving cars. But CEO Elon Musk’s role as adviser to the president and his political activities have raised concerns his involvement has been damaging the Tesla brand.

Meta - Meta stock dropped 3.7% amid another rough day for major tech stocks. News that the Facebook parent's AI models had reached 1 billion downloads was not enough to reverse Meta stock's decline. Meta faces April trial in FTC case seeking to unwind Instagram merger.

Alphabet - Alphabet, the parent company of Google, agreedto acquire cybersecurity start-up Wiz for $32 billion.News of the all-cash deal comes after Wiz rejected a $23 billion bid last year, and marks the tech giant’s largest-ever purchase. The acquisition combines Wiz’s security platform with Google’s cloud infrastructure. Shares of Alphabet dropped 2.2%.

Palantir - Palantir Technologies declined 4% to $83.89. Analysts at Jefferies reiterated theirUnderperformrating on shares of the data-analytics company with Palantir’s valuation being a concern. The stock has gained roughly 253% over the past year, though it has fallen 32% since Feb. 18.

Intel - Intel rose 0.9% after shares of the chip maker finished Monday with a gain of 6.8% at $25.69. The stock has risen four straight sessions and has gained nearly 30% over the period. Lip-Bu Tan takes over officially as CEO on Tuesday but momentum has been growing for the stock sinceTan was named to the top post last Wednesday. A report from Reuters on Monday said the CEO potentially plans to cut back on middle management, improve the company’s chip-manufacturing performance, and introduce new semiconductors to power artificial-intelligence servers. 

BigBear.ai - BigBear.ai shares sank 14.9% after the artificial-intelligence software provider said it would need more time to file its annual report for 2024 and would restate several years’ worth of accounts.

XPeng, NIO, Li Auto - Chinese EV maker XPeng, meanwhile, reported a fourth-quarter loss that narrowed from a year earlier as revenue rose 23%. Vehicle margins in the period jumped 10%, up 5.9 percentage points from a year earlier. XPeng said it expects first-quarter deliveries to more than quadruple to 91,000-93,000 vehicles. The stock declined 7.8%. Peers NIO and Li Auto rose 3.2% and 1%, respectively.

BYD - Shares of BYD, China’s biggest domestic EV maker, set a record high in Hong Kong trading after unveiling itsnew charging technology, which it said can provide 400 kilometers of range in just five minutes of charging time. U.S.-listed shares of BYD rose 2.6%.

Lucid - Lucid was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight by Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas and the price target was left unchanged at $3. The company has artificial-intelligence optionality, with Jonas writing in a research note that Lucid “has the opportunity to execute an AI strategyleveraging strategic/sovereign partnerships within the context of the urgency to develop onshore manufacturing capacity.” The stock jumped 8.8% to $2.35.

Sarepta Therapeutics - Sarepta Therapeutics cratered 27.4% after disclosing that a man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy died of acute liver failure followingtreatment with Elevidys. The company lists acute liver injury as a “known possible side effect” of Elevidys, but conceded Tuesday that no patient had previously died of liver failure after receiving the gene therapy.

Tiger Brokers - In the fourth quarter, UP Fintech Holding Limited (NASDAQ: TIGR) achieved a revenue of US$124.1 million, up 77.3% YoY, while full-year revenue reached US$391.5 million, a 43.7% YoY increase—both setting new record highs. The shares soared 21.6%.

Tencent Music - Tencent Music shares jumped 15.5%. The company reported fourth-quarter earnings that surpassed analyst estimates, driven by strong growth in its online music services. In a move to enhance shareholder value, Tencent Music’s board approved an annual cash dividend of approximately US$273 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. Additionally, the company authorized a new Share Repurchase Program of up to US$1 billion over a 24-month period starting March 2025.

Market News

White House Says Reciprocal Tariffs Still Intended to Take Effect from April 2

The Trump administration still intends for reciprocal tariffs to take effect on April 2, a White House official said, clarifying comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent which suggested countries could negotiate before the U.S. government begins collecting new import duties.

"The intent is to enact tariffs on April 2," the official said. "Unless the tariff and non-tariff barriers are equalized, or the U.S. has higher tariffs, the tariffs will go into effect."

Tesla Gets First in a Series of Permits It Needs to Run Robotaxis in California

Tesla on Tuesday received the first in a series of approvals from California required for the electric car maker to eventually launch a promised robotaxi service in the state, according to a state regulator.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said it approved Tesla's application for a transportation charter-party carrier permit (TCP), a license typically associated with chauffeur-operated services, allowing the company to own and control a fleet of vehicles and transport employees on pre-arranged trips.