11:46 AM EDT, 08/26/2025 (MT Newswires) -- The big three stock indexes were relatively flat in late-morning trading Tuesday, as investors looked past President Donald Trump's announcement that he has fired Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and ahead toward Nvidia's (NVDA) upcoming earnings results.

Trump disclosed a letter late Monday on Truth Social addressed to Cook stating that she is "hereby removed from your position on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately," citing information from Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte and Attorney General Pam Bondi that Cook "may have made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements." In a statement on Monday, Cook said Trump "has no authority" to fire her "for cause" because "no cause exists," according to media reports. Cook said she will not resign and "will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022," the reports said.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday on CNBC that the Trump administration is "thinking about" the government acquiring equity stakes in Lockheed Martin ( LMT ) and other top defense contractors. Lutnick's comments follow the government's move last week to acquire a 9.9% stake in Intel (INTC). Separately, RTX's (TRX) Pratt & Whitney business said Tuesday it has won a $2.8 billion contract to manufacture F135 engines that power Lockheed's F-35 Lightning II 5th generation fighter aircraft. Shares of Lockheed, Northrup Grumman (NOC), RTX and General Dynamics ( GD ) were up 1.8%, 1.3%, 1.2% and 0.5%, respectively, around noon.

AT&T ( T ) said Tuesday it will acquire about 50 megahertz of nationwide spectrum from EchoStar ( SATS ) for $23 billion. AT&T ( T ) will acquire about 30 MHz of nationwide 3.45 gigahertz mid-band spectrum and roughly 20 MHz of nationwide 600 MHz low-band spectrum, it said. The deal is expected to close in mid-2026, pending certain closing conditions, AT&T ( T ) said. Shares of AT&T ( T ) were down 1.4%, while those of EchoStar ( SATS ) were up 78.4%.

Eli Lilly ( LLY ) said Tuesday its investigational oral drug orforglipron met its primary and secondary endpoints in a phase 3 trial in patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity or who are overweight. The trial showed the drug delivered "significant" weight loss, meaningful A1C reductions and improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors at 72 weeks, the company said. Eli Lilly ( LLY ) shares were up 4.1%.

Price: 28.36, Change: -0.38, Percent Change: -1.32