(Adds market details and updates prices after close of trading )

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Tariffs take $1 billion bite from GM earnings, shares

tumble

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RTX down after cutting 2025 profit forecast

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S&P 500 +0.06%, Nasdaq -0.39%, Dow +0.40%

By Noel Randewich and Pranav Kashyap

July 22 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 eked out a record-high

close on Tuesday, following steep losses in General Motors ( GM ) and a

gain in Tesla as investors focused on recent and upcoming

quarterly reports and watched for signs of progress in U.S.

trade discussions.

GM tumbled 8.1% after the automaker reported a $1 billion

hit from tariffs to its quarterly results, adding more fuel to

investor concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump's global

trade policy. Shares of Ford Motor ( F ) fell about 1%.

Tesla climbed 1.1% a day before its quarterly report,

while Alphabet, also reporting on Wednesday, rose

0.65%.

Optimism about heavy spending on artificial intelligence has

underpinned a rally in Wall Street's most valuable companies,

with the S&P 500 trading around record highs.

"The market is consolidating recent gains and is in a bit of

a holding pattern with some huge catalysts over the next week or

two, including the August 1 tariff deadline and a lot of

important Magnificent Seven earnings," said Ross Mayfield, an

investment strategy analyst at Baird.

Other Big Tech stocks lost ground, with Meta Platforms ( META )

and Microsoft ( MSFT ) both losing about 1%.

Shares of RTX dropped 1.6% after the aerospace and

defense giant took a hit from Trump's trade war despite strong

demand for its engines and aftermarket services.

Lockheed Martin ( LMT ) tumbled almost 11% after its quarterly

profit plunged by about 80%.

U.S. trade policy remains a major point of uncertainty for

investors and companies as Trump's self-imposed August 1

deadline for many countries to reach agreements with the White

House approaches.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would meet his

Chinese counterpart next week to discuss an extension to the

August 12 deadline set for tariffs on imports from China.

Other trade negotiations appeared stalled, with optimism for a

breakthrough deal with India waning and EU officials weighing

countermeasures against the United States.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.06% to end the session at 6,309.62

points.

The Nasdaq declined 0.39% to 20,892.69 points, while the Dow

Jones Industrial Average rose 0.40% to 44,502.44 points.

Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by

healthcare, up 1.9%, followed by a 1.78% gain in real

estate.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively heavy, with 18.8

billion shares traded, compared with an average of 17.7 billion

shares over the previous 20 sessions.

Philip Morris ( PM ) slumped 8.43% after reporting

second-quarter revenue below expectations, as shipments of its

ZYN nicotine pouches disappointed investors.

Analysts on average expected S&P 500 companies to report a

7% increase in earnings for the second quarter, with technology

heavyweights driving much of that gain, according to LSEG

I/B/E/S.

After last week's mixed economic data, traders have all but

ruled out an interest-rate cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve at

next week's policy meeting. They now see about a 60% chance of a

reduction in September, according to the CME's FedWatch tool.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500

by a 4.3-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 21 new highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq

recorded 73 new highs and 41 new lows.