*

Tuesday starts run of data releases, corporate earnings

season

*

Investors cautious before these commence

*

Crypto stocks jump as Bitcoin hits $120,000 mark

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Waters to merge with Becton's diagnostics arm, shares fall

(Updates to New York close; adds analyst)

By David French

July 14 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks ended marginally

up on Monday as investors sidestepped any meaningful moves

following U.S. President Donald Trump's latest tariff threats,

and held steady ahead of a busy week of economic data and the

start of earnings season.

Trump ramped up trade tensions over the weekend, vowing to

slap a 30% tariff on most imports from the European Union and

Mexico starting August 1 - leaving the clock ticking for

last-minute trade deals.

The EU extended its pause on retaliatory measures until

early August, holding out hope for a negotiated truce. The White

House said talks with the EU, Canada and Mexico are still

underway.

Despite the headlines, investor reaction was muted, having

grown numb to Trump's barrage of tariff threats and his frequent

last-minute U-turns.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500

gained 8.58 points, or 0.14%, to end at 6,268.33 points,

while the Nasdaq Composite gained 53.66 points, or

0.27%, to 20,641.51. The Dow Jones Industrial Average

rose 79.60 points, or 0.18%, to 44,451.11.

Markets have been buoyant in recent weeks even as Trump has

rattled his tariff saber, with both the S&P 500 and

Nasdaq Composite hitting record highs last week.

"If anything is holding the market back, is the fact we've

had a pretty good run since April," said Jason Pride, chief of

investment strategy & research at Glenmede.

He noted that despite initial fears that Trump's tariff

policy would hurt the U.S. economy, the levies unveiled so far

and the passage of his signature economic legislation last week

will broadly offset each other, meaning investors are starting

to be more confident about the economy's growth prospects.

Signs of how Trump's policies are playing out will come

this week, with a raft of new reports on the state of the U.S.

economy due up.

Second-quarter earnings season kicks off on Tuesday, when

several Wall Street banking heavyweights are set to report.

Tuesday is also the scheduled release of the latest consumer

price data, which is expected to reveal an inflation uptick in

June as sellers started passing on the cost of sweeping tariffs.

Wednesday's producer and import price reports will offer

fresh insight into how supply chain pressures are shaping up.

One place where Trump's tariff rhetoric still moved markets

was crude prices, with U.S. benchmark oil dropping 2.2% after he

threatened levies on buyers of Russian exports, which may have

knock-on effects on global energy supplies.

This pushed the energy index lower, and was the

biggest decliner among the 11 S&P sectors.

Among the sectors in positive territory was communication

services, helped by gains in Netflix ( NFLX ), which

reports earnings on Thursday, and Warner Bros. Discovery ( WBD )

, whose latest Superman caper had a strong opening

weekend at the box office.

Investors are also monitoring tensions between the White

House and the Federal Reserve, after economic adviser Kevin

Hassett said over the weekend that Trump might have cause to

fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, citing cost overruns from the U.S.

central bank's headquarters renovation.

While traders have almost fully ruled out a July rate cut,

the probability for a September move stands at around 60%,

according to CME FedWatch.

Crypto stocks ticked up after Bitcoin topped $120,000

for the first time. Coinbase rose, as did MicroStrategy ( MSTR )

.

Waters Corp ( WAT ) dropped after the lab equipment maker

agreed to merge with rival Becton, Dickinson and Company's ( BDX )

Biosciences & Diagnostic Solutions unit in a $17.5

billion deal.