Big moves for a couple of high-profile names masked a steady undercurrent of basically healthy earnings on Tuesday. Softer-than-expected but still stable employment data continue to support the Federal Reserve's chosen policy path. And a one-month truce in the North American trade war has encouraged market participants who expect the Trump administration to use tariff threats as negotiating tools.
"The postwar bipartisan consensus that the U.S. prospers by fostering cooperation and integration with allies and neighbors is gone," writes Greg Ip in The Wall Street Journal. "In its place looms the prospect of continuous trade war driven not by traditional alliances and ideology, but the priorities of the day."
