Stock Market Today: Stocks edge lower as tariff uncertainty lingers

Updated at 4:57 PM EDT by Rob Lenihan

Stocks finished lower Tuesday, as investors looked to further suggestions of tariff relief from President Donald Trump as driving a mid-month rebound for global stock markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 155.83 points, or 0.38%, to finish the session at 40,368.96, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.17% to close at 5,396.63 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.05% to end the day at 16,823.17. 

“With so much uncertainty, investors appear to be clinging to the hard facts of low unemployment and a consumer who, though nervous, is still spending”, Louis Navellier, chairman and founder of Navellier & Associates.

He added that a Bank of America survey said 82% of fund managers expect the global economy to weaken, and a record number intend to reduce exposure to US equities. 

"This is the most bearish sentiment in 30 years," Navellier said. "If such a bearish slant is already priced in, the market may have already bottomed."

Updated at 10:57 AM EDT

Bonds behaving ... 

Treasury yields are moving lower into the opening hours of trading, as the market's key volatility gauge retreats and the U.S. dollar claws back some of its recent decline heading into Wednesday's March retail sales figures.

Benchmark 10-year note yields were last pegged at 4.341%, down 3 basis points on the day but still some 10 to 12 basis points higher from last week's levels, which came amid the throes of the worst bond market selloff in two decades.

The Merrill Lynch Options Volatility Estimate, better-known as the MOVE index and the benchmark gauge for bond market unrest, was last marked 5.3% lower at 132.46, the lowest since early Friday.  

The U.S. dollar index, meanwhile, was marked 0.21% higher against a basket of its global peers, rebounding from the lowest in nearly three years and trading at 99.901.

Homing in on a 'no-cut' May pic.twitter.com/94tSL5NS6N— Mike Zaccardi, CFA, CMT