• US stocks spread heading into the midweek as investors brace for Fed rate call.
• Tech stocks that initially led the latest risk rally are hesitating ahead of earnings.
• Fed set to hold rates on Wednesday, traders looking for hints about March rate cut.

US equity indexes spread on Tuesday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 (SP500) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closing in opposite directions after the DJIA clipped into a new all-time high and the SP500 closed softly lower as the tech sector drags ahead of key earnings reports and traders bracing for another rate call from the Federal Reserve (Fed) on Wednesday as US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) labor figures loom over the horizon on Friday.

The tech sector led US equities by the nose into all-time highs across US indexes in the recent rally, fueled in part by earnings expectations on the back of developments in the AI spheres, as investors bet big on demand for products from chipmakers to fuel tech investment in the burgeoning space. Recent earnings have started to show cracks however, with major companies like Tesla, Alphabet, and Apple missing broad-market growth expectations and adding dark clouds to the market’s previously-rosy outlook on the prospect of forever growth in the tech sector.