Tuesday Market Cheat Sheet: 3 Stories That Moved Markets

Of all the major U.S. indices, only the Dow was able to reverse early losses and edge out a fractional gain on Tuesday afternoon. Investors seemed keen to take profits after a historic week of new record highs for the index and the looming possibility that the S&P 500 will hit a record of its own in the near future.

At the close: DJIA: +0.02%, S&P 500: -0.25%, NASDAQ: -0.32%.

Here are three stories that helped shape the markets on Tuesday:

1) Democrats and Republicans have each lobbed their respective budgets into the fray, and market participants have strapped on their blast goggles to watch the fallout. The no-man’s land between America’s two leading political parties is already littered with the refuse of bad ideas that ran out of steam and good ideas that got shot down, and only the most optimistic observers are expecting the proposals to make their way before Congress and succeed.

As it stands, the GOP would balance the budget in 10 years through $4.6 trillion in spending cuts, with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) and others suggesting that the Affordable Care Act be gutted. Democrats would shrink the deficit by $1.85 trillion over 10 years through further tax increases on the wealthy, while simultaneously adding about $100 billion for infrastructure spending.