US stocks nudged higher on Wednesday as Wall Street waited for President Trump's latest escalation in tariff tensions to play out and watched for progress on trade deals. The Dow

The Nasdaq composite held up the best among the major indexes, but wavered and was up just 0.2% in recent trades. The S&P 500 also wavered and edged into positive ground after falling 0.8% Monday. Small caps outpaced the market, with the Russell 2000 index lifting 0.5% higher. The Russell ended a six-day winning streak Monday.