04:13 PM EDT, 08/19/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes ended lower on Tuesday as big tech stocks slumped and the Trump administration broadened its 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum to over 400 new product categories.

* Housing starts in July rose 5.2% to an annual rate of 1.428 million from the previous month, exceeding Bloomberg's estimate of 1.297 million.

* September West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell $0.93 to settle at $62.49 per barrel, while October Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last seen down $0.68 to $65.92.

* Intel ( INTC ) shares rose 7% after media outlets reported that US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick confirmed the Trump administration is considering taking up to a 10% equity stake in the chipmaker due to national security concerns. Separately, Intel ( INTC ) secured a $2 billion equity investment from SoftBank Group at $23 a share.

* Nvidia ( NVDA ) shares fell 3.5%, and Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) stock dropped 5.4%. The companies recently agreed to pay the US government 15% of revenue from sales of certain artificial intelligence chips to China.

* Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) shares fell 9.4%, and Oracle (ORCL) dropped 5.9%, the top decliners on the S&P 500.