• US dollar subdued as investors await tariff clarity
• Gold extends gains against soft dollar
• US-EU trade deal prospects fade as deadline nears
• Oil prices drop amid demand concerns

NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) - The Dow gained while the Nasdaq lost ground on Tuesday and crude settled lower as investors assessed a spate of mixed earnings and signs that President Donald Trump's protracted trade war is hitting corporate profit margins, even as Trump's dealmaking deadline approached.

The S&P 500 closed with nominal gains as underperforming tech shares (.SPLRCT) , opens new tab dragged the Nasdaq into the red.

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Gold extended its gains in opposition to the softening dollar, and U.S. Treasury yields eased for the third-straight session.

"(Investors are) looking for additional catalysts and you're seeing some cautious comments coming out of companies," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut. "They're hearing mixed guidance when it comes to all this uncertainty revolving around tariffs and the direction things are heading."

Second-quarter earnings season has hit full stride, with nearly one-fifth of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 79% have beaten analyst expectations, according to LSEG data.

Analysts expect year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 7%, on aggregate, a sizable improvement over the 5.8% growth predicted as of July 1, per LSEG.

Still, the effects of the trade war have begun seeping into corporate results. General Motors' (GM.N) , opens new tab second-quarter core profit slid 32% as steep tariff costs took a $1.1-billion bite from its bottom line.

Prospects of a U.S.-European Union trade deal appeared to be fading as Washington's August 1 deadline loomed, prompting EU members to ramp up possible "anti-coercion" retaliatory measures.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday he would meet with his Chinese counterpart to discuss delaying the August 12 trade talks deadline with China again, as the world's two largest economies wrestle with the flow of technology and rare earth materials.

"These are pretty classic negotiations; nothing ever happens until it has to happen," says Chuck Carlson, CEO at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. "Nothing gets done until the deadline, then either the deadline gets extended or there's some resolution that comes out of nowhere."

"The flip side of this is Trump's going to have to follow through eventually," Carlson added. "Otherwise, he’s going to be the boy that cried wolf, and his negotiating power is going to be sapped because people will believe he's never going to follow through."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) , opens new tab rose 179.12 points, or 0.40%, to 44,502.19, the S&P 500 (.SPX) , opens new tab rose 3.99 points, or 0.06%, to 6,309.59 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) , opens new tab fell 81.49 points, or 0.39%, to 20,892.69.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) , opens new tab rose 0.68 points, or 0.07%, to 930.31.

The pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX) , opens new tab index fell 0.41%, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index (.FTEU3) , opens new tab fell 8.50 points, or 0.39%

Emerging market stocks (.MSCIEF) , opens new tab fell 3.93 points, or 0.31%, to 1,249.53. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) , opens new tab closed lower by 0.17%, to 657.56, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) , opens new tab fell 44.19 points, or 0.11%, to 39,774.92.

The dollar continued to edge lower amid a subdued currency market as investors awaited any sign of progress in trade talks ahead of the August 1 deadline.

The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.5% to 97.36, with the euro up 0.49% at $1.1752.

Against the Japanese yen , the dollar weakened 0.56% to 146.56.

Bitcoin gained 1.98% to $119,320.90. Ethereum declined 2.41% to $3,668.31.

U.S. Treasury yields appeared set to notch a third-straight day of declines as the market took a breather on the heels of Monday's rally.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 2.8 basis points to 4.342%, from 4.37% late on Monday.

The 30-year bond yield fell 2.6 basis points to 4.9111% from 4.937% late on Monday.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 1.9 basis points to 3.833%, from 3.852% late on Monday.

U.S. crude slid 1.47% to settle at $66.21 per barrel, while Brent settled at $68.59 per barrel, down 0.9%.

Spot gold rose 1.07% to $3,431.87 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 1.15% to $3,441.00 an ounce.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-update-6-graphic0-2025-07-22/