US benchmark equity indexes were higher after midday Monday as markets assessed the latest tariff threat by President Donald Trump and awaited key inflation data due later in the week.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 1.1% at 19,740.6 intraday, while the S&P 500 rose 0.7% to 6,065. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% to 44,414.8. Among sectors, energy and technology saw the biggest increases. Financials was the steepest decliner.

Aluminum and steel stocks in the US jumped after Trump said Sunday he would impose 25% tariffs on metal imports. Last week, he delayed plans for 25% general import tariffs on Canada, which was the biggest supplier of aluminum to the US in 2023, ING said in a research note published Monday.

China recently announced a series of retaliatory tariffs against the US, while the Trump administration paused the announced tariffs on Mexico.

The US two-year yield was down 1.3 basis points at 4.27% intraday, while the 10-year rate added one basis point to 4.49%.

The official US consumer inflation report for January is due Wednesday, with producer prices data scheduled for Thursday.

Late last month, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged following three consecutive cuts and said inflation remained "somewhat elevated."

A survey by the New York Fed showed Monday that US consumers' inflation expectations rose at the long-term horizon last month, but held steady at the short- and medium-term horizons.

"Commodity price expectations rose across the board, with the expected price change for gas, food, medical care, education, and rent all increasing," the Fed branch said.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 1.8% at $72.30 a barrel intraday.

In company news, Rockwell Automation (ROK) affirmed its full-year earnings outlook as the industrial automation company's bottom-line results for the fiscal first quarter came in ahead of Wall Street estimates. The company's shares jumped 14%, the top gainer on the S&P 500.

McDonald's (MCD) was the best performer on the Dow, up 4.9%, after the fast-food giant posted a surprise same-store sales increase for the fourth quarter.

ON Semiconductor (ON) shares slumped 7.6%, the steepest decline on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, after the company issued a downbeat quarterly outlook following a fourth-quarter miss.

Some 62% of S&P 500 companies had reported quarterly results through Friday, with earnings jumping nearly 13% year over year on 5.4% revenue growth, Oppenheimer Asset Management said Monday. Before the reporting season's start, Bloomberg put analysts' projected bottom-line growth at 7.3%, the brokerage said.

Moderna (MRNA), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Applied Materials (AMAT), Cisco (CSCO), and Coca-Cola (KO) are among the major names scheduled to report later this week.

Gold was up 1.6% at $2,933.90 per troy ounce, while silver rose 0.2% to $32.5 per ounce.