The New York Stock Exchange traded in mixed order on Tuesday morning, penalized by the heaviness of Nvidia and the semiconductor sector in general, which overshadowed the strength of consumer-related stocks.

At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones managed to claw back 0.1% to 38,654.8 points, but the Nasdaq Composite lost nearly 1% to 15,622.8 points.

Investors seem reluctant to commit themselves before tomorrow evening's eagerly-awaited quarterly results from Nvidia, whose performance will be closely watched by the market.

"The publication will be decisive, given that the 'Magnificent Seven' have fuelled the markets' advance this year, with a gain of 10.65% since January 1", points out Jim Reid, market analyst at Deutsche Bank.

Among them, Nvidia has been the best performer in the S&P 500 index, up 46.63% this year", he adds.

Against this cautious backdrop, Nvidia fell by more than 5%, as did AMD and Applied Materials, while the semiconductor segment shed 2.2%.

Among the companies reporting results earlier in the day, Walmart gained 4% after reporting solid quarterly results, raising its annual targets and increasing its dividend.

Home Depot lagged behind (+0.7%) after reporting a 14% drop in Q4 earnings, on the basis of sales down 2.9% to 34.8 billion (-3.5% like-for-like).

On the upside, agri-food stocks benefited from encouraging comments made by several sector players at the CAGNY consumer goods conference held in Boca Raton (Florida).

Kraft Heinz was up 2%, followed by Campbell Soup and General Mills, the latter having used the event to confirm its annual targets.

On the bond front, the yield on 10-year Treasuries fell back to 4.25% after a sharper-than-expected decline in the Conference Board's index of leading indicators, reinforcing the scenario of further rate cuts.

This leading indicator, which foreshadows the general economic trend for the months ahead, fell by 0.4% in January, to 102.7, following a 0.2% drop in December.

But the Conference Board says it no longer expects a recession in the US this year, simply forecasting near-zero growth in the second and third quarters.

On the oil markets, crude oil prices are back on the decline, as fears of a slower-than-expected recovery in demand in China outweigh Beijing's new support measures.

US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) is down 1% at $78.40.

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