Stocks left Tuesday's session with little changed as market participants looked ahead to another batch of quarterly earnings and near-term stimulus outlooks dimmed. The S&P 500 reached a record intraday high before slipping slightly lower, while the Nasdaq made little change. Meanwhile, the Dow pared most of Monday's declines as components Johnson & Johnson (JNJ  ) and 3M (MMM  ) topped earnings expectations.

Consumer confidence increase at a more-than-expected rate in January following December's decline, the U.S. Conference Board reported on Tuesday. The headline index rose higher to 89.3 in January, following December's downwardly revised print of 87.1. Furthermore, a subindex tracking consumers' expectations for income, business and labor market conditions also rose to 92.5 from last month's 87.0, while the subindex tracking consumers' currency condition expectations declined to 84.4 from December's 87.2.

"Consumers' appraisal of present-day conditions weakened further in January, with COVID-19 still the major suppressor" Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said in a statement. "Consumers' expectations for the economy and jobs, however, advanced further, suggesting that consumers foresee conditions improving in the not-too-distant future."

Here's how the market settled on Tuesday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): -0.15% or -5.78 points to 3,849.58

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): -0.07% or -22.90 points to 30,937.10

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -0.07% or -9.93 points to 13,626.06

For Stocks, GameStop (GME  ) popped over 90% on Tuesday as retail investors active in chat rooms continued to bet against short sellers. Other heavily shorted stocks like AMC Entertainment (AMC  ) and Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY  ) also continued to soar in the volatile climate.

For Sector Performance, sectors on the S&P 500 ended the session mixed, with Real Estate (XLRE  ) and Consumer Staples (XLY  ) leading gains and Materials (XLB  ) and Energy (XLB  ) leading losses.

For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP  ) slipped against other riskier currencies on Tuesday, reversing some of the previous session's gains. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against other global currencies, fell 0.19% lower at 90.173. Gold (GLD  ) prices slipped lower on Tuesday as market participants become concerned about the future of near-term stimulus. Spot gold declined 0.2% to $1,851.26 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures settled 0.2% lower at $1,850.90 per ounce. Crude oil futures also edged lower on Tuesday as global coronavirus cases continued to rise. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) was down 0.2% at $55.77 per barrel, while domestic index West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) declined 0.6% to $52.47 each.

For Wednesday, investors will turn their attention to the latest Federal Open Market Committee decision and remarks from Chair Jerome Powell. Companies like Apple (AAPL  ), Tesla (TSLA  ), Facebook (FB  ) and Boeing (BA  ) are also slated to report quarterly earnings.