UKX FTSE 100 Index

By Riva Gold 

Stocks steadied, bond yields climbed and the dollar recovered Tuesday while the British pound came under pressure as investors parsed a landmark decision on Brexit.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 14 points, or less than 0.1%, to 19814 shortly after the opening bell. The S&P 500 gained 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3%%.

The WSJ Dollar Index rose 0.3% from a two-month low, while the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note climbed to 2.440% from 2.401% Monday.

U.S. equities, the dollar and yields on long-dated government bonds had fallen Monday after President Donald Trump formally pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and said the U.S. will impose a "very major" border tax on companies that move production overseas.

"There will be no quick resolution of uncertainty on taxes and foreign trade," said Kully Samra, managing director at Charles Schwab. "But there are inflection points both in the economy and in earnings," he said, which should support appetite for risk.

In corporate news, Alibaba Group Holding's shares rose 4.2% after the Chinese e-commerce giant posted a surge in revenue,

Shares of Johnson & Johnson fell 1.7% after the health-care giant released an underwhelming forecast for the year, while shares of Yahoo rose 3.6% after the company said its $4.8 billion deal with Verizon Communications will close a quarter later than expected and posted better than-expected results for the fourth quarter.

Elsewhere, the British pound fell 0.5% to $1.2449 after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that the government couldn't trigger the Brexit process without parliamentary approval as widely expected, but that devolved parliaments wouldn't need to be consulted.

Had the court required their approval, "that could've really thrown a spanner in the works and delayed Brexit," said William Hamlyn, investment analyst at Manulife Asset Management.

The pound typically climbs on perceived barriers to the government's plans to trigger Article 50, but the ruling on parliamentary approval was widely expected, he said.

The government said the ruling wouldn't affect plans to trigger talks to leave the EU by the end of March, and the opposition Labour Party said it wouldn't seek to stop Brexit from happening.

In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.2% and London's FTSE 100 added 0.2%, recovering from Monday's losses.

The basic resources led gains, on track for its best close since 2014. Shares of iron-ore producer Rio Tinto rose 4.5% while BHP Billiton added 4.1% and Anglo American added roughly 5% after it said its majority-owned De Beers Group reported much higher diamond sales.

Shares in Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali gained 10% after launching a defensive move against lender Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, while shares of BT Group fell nearly 18% after announcing a bigger-than-expected write-down related to an accounting scandal at its Italian business.

In currencies, the euro was down 0.1% against the dollar at $1.0749 after data showed the eurozone economy lost momentum at the start of the year but still remained robust.

The Turkish lira fell 0.3%, paring steeper earlier losses, after its central bank defied expectations and kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged.

Earlier, stocks in Japan fell 0.6% amid concerns protectionist U.S. trade policies would hit the auto sector, while the recent drop in bond yields weighed on shares of financials.

Markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong inched higher ahead of the weeklong Chinese New Year holidays, set to begin on Saturday.

Australian stocks rose 0.7%, led by the mining sector, as Dalian iron-ore futures jumped nearly 6% ahead of the Lunar New Year.

--Robb M. Stewart, Kosaku Narioka, Giada Zampano and Jenny Gross contributed to this article.

Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 24, 2017 09:54 ET (14:54 GMT)

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