The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite finished Tuesday's session slightly in positive territory.

The broad-based index ticked up 0.08% to 6,616.85, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.1% to 22,017.85.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished lower, however, dropping 85.42 points, or 0.18%, to 46,584.46.

— Sean Conlon

Surging oil prices due to the U.S.-Iran war have boosted energy stocks in 2026. Some investors are worried that the rally can't last.

On CNBC's "Halftime Report," traders said they were growing more cautious on the sector, which has jumped around 34% in 2026 and has advanced almost 8% since the start of the conflict in the Middle East. 

As investors await President Donald Trump's 8 p.m. ET Tuesday deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, Joe Terranova said trimming some exposure to energy stocks might make sense, particularly if the deadline leads to an end of the war and a sharp rally higher in equities.

"What's in front of us is the possibility that if you get that good news, you are going to have a powerful rally," said the chief market strategist for Virtus Investment Partners. "What do you do with that? If you've had hedges in place — whether it be oil, or fertilizers, or defensive positioning — I think you pare that back at some point today."

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Davis Giangiulio

Shares of Apple fell Tuesday after reports that the company is facing engineering challenges with its highly anticipated foldable iPhones.

"Apple and the supply chain are working under a pressured timeline and the current solutions are not enough to completely solve the engineering challenges. ... More time is needed," a person familiar with the situation told Nikkei Asia.

Apple, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last week, has announced four new iPhone models at its September launch event every year since 2020.

The foldable phone was expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 in September 2026, but Nikkei's report raised concerns of delays. Bloomberg later reported that the phone remains on track for its September debut. Read more.

— Lola Murti

Here are the stocks posting the biggest moves in midday trading:

• Apple — The second-largest public company in the U.S. dropped nearly 4% Tuesday, leading the S&P 500 lower, after Nikkei Asia said Apple has suffered "setbacks in the engineering test phase" for its planned foldable version of the iPhone that could hurt mass production and product shipments.
• Universal Music Group — U.S. shares of the recorded music distributor surged almost 13% after hedge fund investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management on Tuesday offered to buy Universal in a cash and stock deal worth about 55.8 billion euros ($64.4 billion).
• Arm Holdings — The semiconductor company fell more than 4% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to equal weight from overweight. The bank said the company's strategic pivot to chips amid the artificial intelligence buildout will take time, and investor focus on near-term risks like higher research and development costs and dynamic random-access memory shortages could weigh on the stock.

Read here for the full list.

— Sarah Min

On Tuesday, five stocks in the S&P 500 traded at new 52-week lows.

Tickers that hit this milestone included:

• Home Depot trading at lows not seen since December 2023
• Nike trading at lows not seen since October 2014
• Boston Scientific trading at lows not seen since January 2024
• Insulet trading at lows not seen since August 2024
• Axon Enterprise trading at lows not seen since September 2024

Two stocks in the index hit new all-time highs:

• Targa Resources trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in September 2010
• CMS Energy trading at all-time high levels back to when it began trading at the NYSE in October 1987

— Lisa Kailai Han and Christopher Hayes

Arm Holdings declined nearly 6%, one of the worst performers on the Nasdaq 100 in Tuesday trading, following a downgrade by Morgan Stanley. 

The bank moved its rating on the stock to equal-weight from overweight, and cut its price target to $135, indicating a 9% loss from Monday's close. While analyst Lee Simpson in a Tuesday note said the company's move into chips makes sense, he is concerned about the timeline of the pivot.

"Arm's talent acquisition, strategic positioning, and early design delivery have been exemplary. However, the commercial ramp will take time, and near-term risks temper enthusiasm," Simpson wrote. "We think investor focus is likely to revert to Arm's in-line guide against a challenging demand backdrop."

The stock's reaction came as other chip plays were under pressure. Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices were both off more than 1%, while Qualcomm was down more than 2%. Broadcom outperformed the group and was up more than 3% off of deals with Google and Anthropic. 

— Davis Giangiulio

Inflation expectations remained largely in check for March despite soaring energy prices, according to a New York Federal Reserve survey released Tuesday.

The central bank's monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations saw the inflation outlook for the next year rose to 3.4%, a 0.4 percentage point increase. At the same time, the expectations at the three-year horizon edged up to 3.1%, a gain of 0.1 percentage point, while the five-year outlook was unchanged at 3%.

The relatively subdued outlook came despite higher expectations for commodity prices: the one-year outlook for gas rose 5.3 percentage points to 9.4% and 0.7 percentage point for food to 6%. The gas reading is the highest since March 2022.

— Jeff Cox

Goldman Sachs' latest survey of institutional investors highlights mounting concern around credit markets, with bearish sentiment and short positioning both reaching all-time highs as structural risks come into sharper focus.

The poll, conducted between March 30 and April 1 by Goldman's Marquee MarketView team and reflecting the views of 784 institutional clients, shows investors increasingly worried about vulnerabilities in private credit.

Many on Wall Street have grown worried that concerns center on the durability of underwriting standards, potential stress in borrower sectors and how an adverse macro backdrop including oil-driven shocks could ripple through less liquid corners of the market.

— Yun Li

Uncertainty arising from the U.S.-Iran war and its consequences is leading UBS to cut its year-end target for the S&P 500. 

The bank in a Tuesday note said it lowered its 2026 target to 7,500 from 7,700. That's still about a 13.4% gain from Monday's close on the broad index, and would indicate a return in 2026 of about 9.5%. 

Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, UBS CIO and global head of equities, wrote that markets this week are paying close attention to Trump's 8:00 p.m. deadline Tuesday night for Iran, and that the bank has been advising traders to de-risk portfolios as energy prices remain high. 

"We have become more cautious on equity markets that are highly sensitive to disruptions to energy supplies, including Europe, the Eurozone, and India," he wrote. However, investors shouldn't get out of risky assets entirely, Hoffmann-Burchardi reminded. "Recent corporate and economic developments have also served as a reminder of why investors should remain engaged in markets, given the potential positives for risk assets over the medium and longer term."

— Davis Giangiulio

The three major averages opened in the red on Tuesday morning.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 101 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 fell 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.4%.

— Sean Conlon

Orders for long-lasting goods such as defense and transportation equipment, computers and appliances fell more than expected in February, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

So-called durable goods orders fell a seasonally adjusted 1.4% for the month, more than the 0.5% decline in January and below the Dow Jones consensus estimate for a drop of 1.1%.

However, excluding transportation, orders increased 0.8%, though they were off 1.2% when excluding defense. Transportation equipment orders fell 5.4%, or $6.1 billion.

— Jeff Cox

Trump made new remarks Tuesday morning on Iran ahead of his 8 p.m. ET deadline to reach a deal on the war.

He said in a Truth Social post: "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!"

Stock futures took a leg lower following the post, but losses remained contained.

— Fred Imbert

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

• Broadcom, Alphabet — Broadcom on Monday said it agreed to supply artificial intelligence chips for Google and signed an expanded deal with Anthropic to give the AI startup about 3.5 gigawatts worth of computing capacity from Google's AI processors. Broadcom shares gained 3%, while Alphabet was slightly higher by 0.2%.
• Casey's General Stores, Hologic — The convenience store operator will replace Hologic in the S&P 500 prior to the open Thursday, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced. Shares of Casey's rose about 1%, while shares of Hologic have been halted due to the completion of its pending acquisition by Blackstone and TPG Global.

Read the full list here.

— Sarah Min

Activist investor Pershing Square said Tuesday it is planning to buy Universal Music Group in a cash and stock deal worth about 55.8 billion euros ($64.4 billion).

Under the terms of the proposal, shareholders would receive a total of 9.4 billion euros ($10.85 billion) in cash and 0.77 shares of new stock for each share of UMG held. That amounts to a total deal value of 30.4 euros per share, a 78% premium to UMG's closing share price on April 2, Pershing said in a Tuesday statement. Read more.

— April Roach

The Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. officials, that negotiators aren't optimistic a deal between the U.S. and Iran can be reached before President Donald Trump's 8 p.m. ET deadline.

The report said some U.S. officials think the gap between the U.S. and Iran is too large for a deal to materialize by 8 p.m. It added that Iranian officials think expect a similar pattern to play out as in the past: Trump sets a deadline for Iran, says he will bomb the country if an agreement isn't reached, then engages in military operations.

"We agree with that sentiment – a full and final agreement won't be in place by tonight," wrote Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge. "However, since the options facing Trump are so bad, since the US has achieved the bulk of its strategic objectives, since negotiations are still ongoing, and since Iran has made some (small) concessions on Hormuz (the Iraq news from the weekend was meaningful), it's likely that the Pentagon and IDF don't commence a scorched search campaign against civilian infrastructure targets later today."

— Fred Imbert

Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Tuesday following a volatile trading session, as President Donald Trump's deadline for a ceasefire deal approaches.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.74% to end the session at 8,728.8. Japan's Nikkei 225 barely budged, finishing the day 0.03% higher at 53,429.56, while the broad-based Topix gained 0.25% at 3,654.02.

South Korea's blue-chip Kospi was up 0.82% at 5,494.78, and the small-cap Kosdaq lost over 1% to finish at 1,036.73.

Mainland China's CSI 300 was unchanged at 4,440.62, and Hong Kong markets remained closed on Tuesday for the Easter holiday.

India's Nifty 50 reversed earlier losses to rise 0.23% and Sensex was up 0.25%, tracking volatile trading in other Asian markets.

— Anniek Bao

Asia-Pacific markets rose on Tuesday, tracking gains on Wall Street as investors assess the likelihood of a U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal while President Donald Trump reiterated the Tuesday deadline for escalating strikes.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 widened gains to 2.3%. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.26% and the broad-based Topix added 0.23%. South Korea's blue-chip Kospi advanced 1.5%, and the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.85%.

Hong Kong markets remained closed on Tuesday for the Easter holiday.

— Anniek Bao

Shares of Casey's General Stores added 1% on Monday night, ahead of the convenience store chain's planned addition to the S&P 500.

The consumer staples stock is set to join the broad market index on Thursday, April 9. It will replace health care stock Hologic.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Health insurer stocks popped on Monday night after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized its Medicare Advantage payment rate for calendar year 2027.

The payments are projected to result in an average increase of 2.48%, or over $13 billion in additional Medicare Advantage payments, to plans in 2027. That compares to the Trump administration's January proposal for a payment rate hike of 0.09%.

Shares of Humana popped 11%. CVS Health added 6%, and UnitedHealth Group rose 8%. Shares of Elevance Health added 6%.

— Lisa Kailai Han

On Monday night, S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures opened little changed.

On the other hand, futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2%.

— Lisa Kailai Han