US stocks were mixed on Wednesday, holding near recent gains as investors looked to President Trump’s latest comments for more clarity on the scope of looming tariffs.

• Tech leaders Tesla and Nvidia were both down over 4% as the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) sank more than 1%.
• The move lower for Tesla comes after the stock had recently rebounded more than 20% in the past five sessions.
• US stocks were mixed on Wednesday, largely holding near recent gains as investors looked to President Trump’s latest comments for more clarity on the scope of looming tariffs.
• The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) was roughly flat, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose about 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slid more than 0.4%.
• Tesla stock (TSLA) looked poised to break its recent winning streak Wednesday, with shares of the electric vehicle maker down 1.5% in premarket trading.
• Tesla has been battling a succession of concerns lately, including tumbling sales in Europe, tariff concerns, the growing unpopularity of CEO Elon Musk’s role in government, and protests at dealerships. As one crisis PR management expert told Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian of the controversy around Musk, “It’s almost impossible to be a politically divisive figure while running a consumer brand.”
• Year to date, Tesla stock is now down 28%. But it has looked to stage a comeback. Over the past week, the stock is up just as much, surging 12% on Monday alone.
• An all-hands meeting last week in which Musk assured the company (and investors) he is “back in the building” seemed to help the stock. And as Yahoo Finance’s Hamza’s Shaban wrote in today’s Morning Brief, Tesla’s biggest backers have largely kept the faith in what many consider a faith-based stock.
• Shares in the low cost retailer, Dollar Tree (DLTR) rose by almost 3% on Wednesday before the bell, after the company released it’s earnings and announced plans to sell its Family Dollar business to a consortium of private-equity investors for $1 billion.
• The discount-retail chain, which Dollar Tree bought in 2015 for about $9 billion, will be acquired by Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management.
• Dollar Tree also reported its fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday. Net sales increased 4.7% to $17.6 billion. Dollar Tree’s same-store sales increased 1.8%, driven by a 1.6% increase in traffic and a 0.1% increase in average ticket.
• Gross profit increased 4.5% to $6.3 billion and gross margin was flat at 35.8%.
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• Copper (HG=F) prices surged to a record high in New York on the heels of a Bloomberg report that Trump may be just weeks away from implementing tariffs on the industrial metal.
• Futures on the Comex touched an all-time high of $5.374 a pound earlier on Wednesday and were last trading at around $5.261.
• Traders have been trying to front-run potential US duties on copper imports, causing a huge wave of demand that has spurred a roaring rally for the metal.
• Bloomberg reports:
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• Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports:
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• GameStop (GME) stock continued to gain on Wednesday and rose 13% in premarket trading after the company approved a plan to purchase bitcoin (BTC-USD) with its cash holdings.
• Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer reports:
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