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The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended Tuesday’s trading session virtually unchanged, as sharp losses in IBM shares were offset by strong gains in U.S. bank stocks following better-than-expected earnings reports. While the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9% and the S&P 500 climbed 0.4% , the Dow remained close to its previous closing levels, reflecting continued divergence among its constituent indexes.
This performance reflects the nature of the Dow Jones index, which bases its weightings on stock prices rather than the market capitalization of companies, making the movements of some high-priced stocks able to significantly affect the index’s performance.
IBM suffers its biggest daily loss in years
IBM shares were the biggest losers of the session, plunging nearly 25% after the release of preliminary results that fell short of investor expectations, marking the company’s worst daily performance in recent history. IBM also became the first U.S. company with a market capitalization exceeding $200 billion to decline by more than 20% in a single session since April 2025, putting significant pressure on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Despite better-than-expected US inflation data, the sharp decline in IBM shares overshadowed the positive news, while the majority of index stocks recorded negative performance before the end of the session.
Bank results limit market losses
Conversely, the strong performance of banking sector stocks helped limit the index’s losses, after both Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase announced financial results that exceeded analysts’ expectations, boosting investor confidence in the strength of US corporate earnings despite continued economic uncertainty. Markets also received additional support from the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, which showed prices falling by 0.4% month-on-month in June, and the annual inflation rate dropping to 3.5%, compared to expectations of 3.8% .
This data revived hopes that the Federal Reserve might ease the pace of monetary policy tightening, which positively impacted investors’ appetite for stocks.
Markets are anticipating a new batch of business results, and attention is now focused on the continuation of the corporate earnings season, as major companies such as Morgan Stanley , Johnson & Johnson , BlackRock , and United Airlines are expected to reveal their financial results in the coming days.
Meanwhile, US stock futures point to a limited positive open, amid hopes that strong corporate results will continue to support markets and offset pressure on some individual stocks, as investors continue to monitor US economic data and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy path.
