Wall Street traded in two directions at once on Tuesday, as a rebound in semiconductor stocks lifted the S&P 500 and Nasdaq even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid on a disappointing margin forecast from Apple. By mid-afternoon the Dow was down roughly half a percent near 51,700, while the S&P 500 had added about 0.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq pushed higher behind a rally in chipmakers, according to Yahoo Finance's market tracker.

The split screen capped a rocky stretch for Big Tech. A day earlier, the Nasdaq dropped 1.07% to close at 25,164.32 and the S&P 500 fell 0.51%, even as the Dow bucked the trend and gained 0.41% to 51,983.98. Apple's shares extended their slide Tuesday after the company flagged thinner profit margins looking ahead, a warning that 24/7 Wall St. reported was compounded by oil prices climbing on fresh Middle East tension.

All Eyes on AMD

The afternoon's real suspense was aimed at Advanced Micro Devices, which is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results after Tuesday's closing bell, with a conference call set for 5 p.m. ET. AMD has guided investors to expect roughly $13 billion in revenue, plus or minus $300 million, with a non-GAAP gross margin near 56%. Wall Street analysts have penciled in consensus estimates clustered around $13.06 billion in revenue, according to a pre-earnings research preview.

The number investors care most about is Data Center, the division that made up 58% of AMD's revenue last quarter and that the company has said it expects to accelerate in the back half of the year as demand for AI chips continues to outstrip supply. A strong beat there could help settle nerves after a punishing stretch for AI-adjacent stocks; a miss could reignite the "AI bubble" worries that have rattled the Nasdaq since late October.

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Election Day added its own layer of noise to the session, though traders said Tuesday's moves were driven almost entirely by earnings and oil, not politics — a reminder that, for Wall Street, corporate results tend to trump the ballot box in the short run. With control of Congress on the line, any post-election swing in fiscal or regulatory policy is widely expected to show up in trading only once results firm up overnight and into Wednesday.

What's next: AMD's numbers land after the close, with a call starting at 5 p.m. ET. Oil traders, meanwhile, are watching for any escalation tied to this week's tension in the Gulf before Wednesday's session opens.