Tuesday's early afternoon trade: stocks little changed as caution builds ahead of Trump-Xi meeting

US stocks were little changed on Tuesday, trading in a tight range, as investors fretted over the ability of President Donald Trump to deliver on his policy plans, and ahead of his potentially tense meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The industrial and material stocks got a boost after Trump said the US infrastructure bill may top $1 trillion and that his administration was working on a major "haircut" on the Dodd-Frank banking regulation, rekindling some of his campaign promises. But, the gains were neither sufficient or last long enough to offset a drop in financials and technology stocks.
The market rally that was sparked by Trump's pro-business policy plans has cooled of late, following legislative setbacks that led investors to question whether the president would be able to deliver on his promises. Adding to investor nervousness is Trump's upcoming meeting with Xi, one which the US president expects "will be a very difficult one," according to his tweet last week. He has held out the possibility of using trade as a lever to secure China's co-operation against North Korea at the Thursday-Friday meeting.
At 12:44 pm ET (1644 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 25.32 points, or 0.12 percent, at 20,675.53, the S&P 500 was down 1.25 points, or 0.05 percent, at 2,357.59 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.36 points, or 0.02 percent, at 5,893.32.
"We will probably have a period of consolidation here as the realism sets in ... it's likely that we are going to see some choppy sideways trading," said Jason Pride, director of investment strategy at Glenmede in Philadelphia. Of the 11 major S&P sectors, four were lower, two gained and the rest were little changed. The energy index was up 0.4 percent, helped by higher oil prices.
The biggest drag on the S&P and the Nasdaq was Nvidia , which dropped 5.6 percent to $102.24 after Pacific Crest downngraded the chipmaker's stock Staples was the biggest percentage gainer on the S&P with a 10 percent gain. Reuters reported that the office supplies retailer was exploring a sale.