Nvidia and other U.S. tech stocks are steadying a day after tumbling on doubts about whether the artificial-intelligence frenzy really needs all the dollars being poured into it. The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in early trading Tuesday.

The Dow is up roughly 0.3%, versus a fall of 3.11% for the Nasdaq. If it holds, the Dow's 3.41 percentage point outperformance would be its strongest versus the Nasdaq since Nov. 9, 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data, when the blue-chip gauge outpaced the tech-heavy index by 4.47 percentage points.