Initially, the US stock exchanges traded near zero before rising, but ultimately fell back into the red territory.
At closing, the Dow Jones index had lost 0.4 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index 0.1 percent, and the broad S&P index 0.2 percent.
Earlier on Tuesday, it became known that the Chinese government had ordered the country's airlines not to accept further deliveries of aircraft from the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing – and its stock fell 2.6 percent.
The information came to light in the midst of the trade war that has erupted between China and the US, where tariffs of 125 and 145 percent, respectively, have been imposed on goods from the other country.
No major tariff announcements came from the Trump administration on Tuesday – except that he urged China to contact him to resolve the trade war between the countries.
"The ball is on China's court. China must make a deal with us. We don't need to make up with them," he said in a statement.
Major bank Citigroup reported a strong result on Tuesday and rose 1.9 percent. Bank of America also exceeded expectations in its report, and rose 3.5 percent.
Nvidia also rose 1.4 percent. The semiconductor giant announced on Monday that it would start producing the company's "AI supercomputers" exclusively in the US for the first time.
Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday that necessary permits would be issued quickly.
Netflix, which presents its interim report on Thursday, rose 4.8 percent.
