When the trading day ended, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 0.2 percent, while the broad S&P 500 index and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite each rose 0.1 percent, after all three had been clearly down for most of the trading day.
Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, US President Donald Trump threatened Iran in a post on Truth Social, saying "an entire civilization will die tonight," but he also wrote that something revolutionary and "wonderful could happen."
The price of oil rose after the post, but then fell back again. At 10 p.m., a barrel of WTI crude oil cost just over $112, while North Sea Brent crude was trading at just over $107 a barrel.
