Tuesday's relatively muted action in markets follows losses on Monday when Trump posted a flurry of letters to social media that announced new tariff rates ranging from 25% to 40% on more than a dozen countries starting August 1.

The Nasdaq composite inched fractionally higher in Tuesday's session. The S&P 500 shed less than 0.1%. Small caps led the market, with the Russell 2000 index climbing nearly 0.7%. The Russell recouped about half of Monday's drop of nearly 1.6%.