The S&P 500 index remained calm on Tuesday, with chip stocks continuing to show weakness. As the third-quarter earnings season kicked off, traders digested the generally strong performance of banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

The S&P 500 index closed virtually flat in New York, remaining close to its historical highs.

Concerns about Chinese competitors dragged down chip stocks, with the NASDAQ 100 index falling by 0.3%.

AJ Bell The head of financial analysis, Danni Hewson, stated: "Concerns about rising borrowing costs, coupled with worries over the massive investments in AI infrastructure, led to a second consecutive day of setbacks for chip stocks, and the performance of major U.S. banks also failed to boost market sentiment."

Yangtze Memory Technology is narrowing the technological gap with Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology, which may weaken the pricing power and market share of these three major DRAM giants.

Globalt Investments Senior Portfolio Manager Thomas Martin stated: "Considering the various concerns of rising interest rates, soaring U.S. Treasury yields, and high oil prices that have once again enveloped the market in the past few months, such a long period of calm is indeed surprising."

He stated that if companies experience weak profits or economic performance, it will "force traders to stop being complacent and to re-examine those companies with high valuation multiples."

New York Fed Chair Williams stated that he currently does not see the need to raise interest rates next year. Influenced by this, the market narrowed some of its earlier declines.

Microsoft's stock price closed up 0.4%, hitting a new high for the first time since October 2025.

JPMorgan Chase fell 0.9% despite the bank raising its net interest income forecast; Goldman Sachs rose 0.2% as its stock trading business in the third quarter performed better than expected.

Citi's stock price fell by 5.6%, recording the largest single-day decline since April 2025.

As of the close, the S&P 500 index was essentially flat at 7,805.45 points;

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4% to 5,1670.1 points;

The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.2% to 2,7204.38 points;

The Nasdaq 100 index fell 0.3% to 3,0569.48 points;

The Russell 2000 Index fell by 0.4% to 2,783.369 points.