U.S. stocks started a shortened holiday week mostly higher as investors look for more clues into how President Donald Trump's tariff plans shake out and wait for release on Wednesday of minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting.

Markets were closed on Monday for President's Day.

Stocks are coming off a winning week, carving out most of their gains after Trump delayed plans to impose a broad range of reciprocal tariffs. Trump asked for a study of reciprocal tariffs, which could be complete by April 1.

Depsite worries about tariffs and an unexpected rise in inflation, stocks have still managed to climb towards record highs this year. The blue-chip Dow and the tech-heavy Nasdaq are about 1% off their recent record peaks, while the broad S&P 500 is just 0.2% off its own all-time high.

Just before10 A.M. ET, the broad S&P 500 index edged up 0.097%, or 5.94 points, to 6,120.57; the blue-chip Dow eased 0.21%, or 92.75 points, to 44,453.33; and the tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up 0.15%, or 29.55 points, to 20,056.32. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield edged up to 4.511%.

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With inflation on their minds, investors will be eager to get a glimpse of the Fed's thinking when minutes from the last monetary policy meeting are released on Wednesday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said he's in no rush to lower rates, but the minutes may provide a clearer look into how different members see inflation, tariffs and the labor market as they decide the next move for interest rates. More economists are predicting the rate-cutting cycle to be over, and the next move to possibly be a rate hike.

A report Tuesday morning showed manufacturing activity in the New York region rose but so did the inflation measure, called prices paid, within the report. The prices paid index jumped to the highest level in about two years as prices increased.

Corporate news

While investors wait for broad economic signs, company news continued to flow. Some early movers include:

• Shares of U.S. chipmaker Intel jumped 6.56% after the Wall Street Journal said TSMC and Broadcom are each interested in separate parts of Intel and if the deals go through, they could split Intel into two. Broadcom is interested in Intel’s chip-design business, while the Taiwanese manufacturer is looking at the company’s factories. Broadcom shares fell 3.5% and TSMC dipped less than 1%.
• Southwest Airlines said on Monday it's slashing 15% of corporate jobs in an ‘unprecedented’ move to cut costs. Shares of the discount airline eased 0.51%.
• Shares of Constellation Brands rallied 5.5% after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a stake in the beverage company.
• Fluor missed analysts' earnings estimates in the final few months of the year and said this year's outlook looks weak. Shares of the engineering company lost 4.26%.
• Medtronic stock fell 6.38% after the medical device firm reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin remains trapped in a range below the key psychological level of $100,000 without any new impetus from Trump. Trump was a big supporter of the crypto market on the campaign trail but has more recently been quiet.

Robinhood, though, plans to launch Singapore crypto offerings later this year through an entity of European digital-assets exchange Bitstamp Ltd., which it recently acquired. Last week, Robinhood reported strong earnings partly due to a booming crypto business.

Separately, there's good news for those who had crypto at the now defunct FTX crypto exchange. Starting Tuesday, smaller customers with claims of less than $50,000 will begin to get their money back, more than two years after FTX filed for bankruptcy. Ultimately, the bankruptcy estate plans to repay billions of dollars.

Bitcoin was last down 0.25% at $95,576.86.

Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at [email protected] and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.