Stock Market Today: Dow Futures Slip, S&P 500 Gains Amid Trump's Fresh Tariffs On South Korea- General Motors, UnitedHealth, Cloudflare In Focus

U.S. stock futures were swinging between gains and losses on Tuesday following Monday’s higher close. Futures of major benchmark indices were mixed.

On Monday night, President Donald Trump announced fresh tariffs against South Korea, for not "living up to" the trade agreement signed with the United States in July last year.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve will begin its first two-day policy meeting of the year, as traders are looking past the widely anticipated decision to hold rates steady on Wednesday to instead scrutinize the announcement for signals regarding the timing of future cuts.

The 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.21%, and the two-year bond was at 3.58%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 97.2% likelihood of the Federal Reserve leaving the current interest rates unchanged in January.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, were higher in premarket on Tuesday. The SPY was up 0.26% at $694.52, while the QQQ advanced 0.56% to $628.97.

Stocks In Focus

General Motors

• General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) was 0.48% lower in premarket on Tuesday as it is projected to post quarterly earnings of $2.20 per share on revenue of $45.80 billion before the opening bell.

• GM maintains a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long terms with a moderate quality ranking, as per Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings.

UnitedHealth Group

• UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) dropped 8.24% ahead of its earnings, scheduled to be released before the opening bell. Analysts expect quarterly earnings of $2.10 per share on revenue of $113.82 billion.

• Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that UNH maintains a weak price trend over the short, medium, and long terms with a good quality ranking.

Nucor

• Nucor Corp. (NYSE:NUE) declined 3.11% after reporting downbeat earnings for the fourth quarter, as it posted quarterly earnings of $1.73 per share, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $1.91 per share and revenue of $7.687 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $7.868 billion.

• NUE maintains a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long term with a solid quality ranking, as per Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings.

Humana

• Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) shares fell 12.23% following a proposal by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to keep payment rates for next year's private Medicare plans roughly flat.

• HUM maintains a weaker price trend over the short, medium, and long terms with a strong value ranking, as per Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings.

Cloudflare

• Cloudflare Inc. (NYSE:NET) jumped 7.73% as social media excitement surged over the weekend surrounding Clawdbot, an open-source AI agent built on Anthropic's Claude.

• Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings shows that NET maintains a stronger price trend over the long term but a weak trend in the short and medium terms.

Cues From Last Session

On Monday, the market saw broad-based gains with Communication Services, Information Technology, Utilities, Financials, Health Care, Materials, Industrials, and Energy all finishing in positive territory, while Real Estate, Consumer Staples, and Consumer Discretionary were the only sectors to decline.

Insights From Analysts

Professor Jeremy Siegel maintains a highly optimistic outlook for 2026, advising investors to look past current political turbulence.

Despite rising government shutdown odds and delayed tariff rulings, Siegel argues these are temporary impediments. He asserts that “growth momentum remains the central story,” with GDP estimates tracking north of 5% and recession fears fading completely.

Siegel identifies the defining theme of the year as “a genuine productivity revival driven by technology”. He observes that the U.S. is “producing more output with fewer workers,” a dynamic that supports real growth and corporate earnings without reigniting inflation.

Regarding the stock market, Siegel sees a “constructive backdrop” where leadership is finally broadening. He highlights that small-cap and value stocks are “meaningfully outperforming” early in 2026.

This rotation aligns with his view that the market is shifting focus to companies that use AI rather than just those that produce it. Ultimately, Siegel concludes that while policy noise will persist, “the fundamental trajectory for both the economy and markets remains firmly positive.”

Upcoming Economic Data

Here's what investors will be keeping an eye on Tuesday.

• January’s consumer confidence data will be out by 10:00 a.m. ET.

Commodities, Gold, Crypto, And Global Equity Markets

Crude oil futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 0.03% to hover around $60.61 per barrel.

Gold Spot US Dollar rose 1.53% to hover around $5,089.81 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $5,111.40 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.13% higher at the 97.1640 level.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading 0.27% higher at $87,894.11 per coin.

Asian markets closed higher on Tuesday, except China’s CSI 300 index. Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Australia's ASX 200, South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225, and India’s Nifty 50 indices rose. European markets were mostly higher in early trade.

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