Wall Street closed higher Tuesday, apparently cheering President Donald Trump's first day back in the White House after his speeches seemed to show a softer stance on tariffs, economists, said.

The broad S&P 500 index ended at its highest level since Dec. 17 and the Dow soared to close at its highest since Dec. 11.

Before Monday's inauguration, people feared large, blanket tariffs across the board would be inflationary and slow the economy. Instead, "broad and immediate tariffs were not announced, rather President Trump instructed the government to study multiple avenues and options," Morgan Stanley economists wrote in a note.

Although Trump did suggest 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada could come by Feb. 1, that is later than his original plan for tariffs to hit on inauguration day.

In November, Trump had said he would sign an executive order to slap a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian imports on Jan. 20. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quickly flew to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he said he had an "excellent conversation" with Trump. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had a "good" phone conversation with Trump discussing migration and borders.

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Since Trump accompanied his Mexico and Canada tariff threats again with a demand that Canada and Mexico crack down on illegal immigration and drug flows over their borders, the countries could still "unveil preemptive measures in a bid to ward off the worst of these tariffs," said Seemah Shah, chief global strategist, Principal Asset Management, in a note.

The broad S&P 500 index closed up 0.88%, or 52.58 points, at 6,049.24; the blue-chip Dow rose 1.24%, or 537.98 points, to 44,025.81; and the tech-heavy Nasdaq edged up 0.64%, or 126.58 points, to 19,756.78. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.564%.

Oil prices shed more than 2% after Trump continued to emphasize more drilling and threaten tariffs that could slow global economies.

Tech stocks jump

Some of the biggest winners on Tuesday included tech stocks.

Shares of Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon all closed higher after the billionaire top executives of those companies were seated prominently at Trump's inauguration.

Tesla's shares dipped a fraction of a percentage point, but are still up about 70% since Trump won the presidential race in November as the EV giant's CEO Elon Musk remains especially close to the new administration. Reports say Musk will have an office in the West Wing of the White House.

Over the weekend, TikTok went dark briefly because of a law stating the Chinese-owned app would be banned if it wasn't sold to a non-Chinese entity. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order that effectively halted enforcement of the law for 75 days, though it wasn't clear that declaration would hold up legally.

Despite Trump's executive action, Facebook's Instagram platform reportedly is offering TikTok content creators a hefty amount of money to switch over. TikTok boasts about 170 million American users who are seen as being up for grabs if TikTok ends up permanently going dark.

Crypto disappointment?

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fell on Monday after Trump failed to issue any crypto-related executive orders or even acknowledge the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve he had promised.

Before the inauguration, the market was rife with speculation Trump would sign an executive order that would boost the profile of cryptocurrencies.

Since then, bitcoin has rebounded some, up about 4% at $106,208.30 at the end of the trading day.

Trump launched a couple of new crypto tokens before his inauguration that initially soared to more than $10 billion in market value on Monday. Since then, the tokens' values have fallen.

Corporate news

Earnings season got a strong start last week with most major U.S. banks reporting strong quarterely results. Tuesday's corporate news included:

• Apple shares fell more than 3% on reports iPhone unit sales slid 18% year-over-year in China in the quarter ended in December. This is just the latest sign Apple's sales are struggling. Last week, market research firm IDC reported that global iPhone unit sales fell 4.1% year-over-year during the same quarter, which is the first in Apple’s fiscal year.
• Walgreens stock tumbled more than 9% after the Justice Department accused it of filling unlawful prescriptions for addictive painkillers and other drugs.
• Brokerage giant Charles Schwab reported fourth-quarter results that topped Wall Street estimates, bolstered by the continuing integration of TD Ameritrade, and client activity following the election. Shares were up nearly 6%.
• DR Horton topped analysts' earning estimates, saying customer incentives such as mortgage buydowns had spurred demand. However, shares of the homebuilder ended down more than 2.5% as investors remained jittery about the housing market and affordability.
• 3M rose 4% after the company reported quarterly sales and earnings per share that both topped expectations.
• Just after the market close, streaming giant Netflix reported results that blew past analysts' expectations. Not only were earnings stronger-than-expected, but the company said it added a record18.9 million subscribers in its holiday quarter. Shares surged 10% in after-hours trading.

(This story was updated with new information.)

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.