Wall Street stocks finished lower on Tuesday on uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump's tariff threats, just one day after taking a dramatic plunge on the back of recession fears.

Trump reported late in the afternoon that he would "probably" reconsider doubling planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium, just hours after announcing a sharp hike.

Days of back-and-forth on tariff hikes against some of the United States' closest trading partners have worn heavily on markets, while Trump's weekend refusal to rule out the possibility of a recession sent Wall Street tumbling Monday, with the Nasdaq marking its largest one-day loss since 2022.

"The volatility is nothing new to us over the course of the last three weeks," Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management told AFP, adding that it's "largely driven by the uncertainty around things like tariffs."

"The difference today is, for the first time in three weeks, it appears as though we might be getting a little bit of good news, it appears as though there might be a window cracked open in the negotiations with Canada on tariffs," he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 1.1 percent, bringing it to 41,433.48.

The broad-based S&P 500 slid 0.8 percent to 5,572.07, while the tech-rich Nasdaq composite Index retreated 0.2 percent to 17,436.10.

Since taking office in January, Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China -- even as he backed off some of the levies on his country's immediate neighbors.

"Certainly the longer this uncertainty persists, the more investors are willing to take money off the table and de-risk their portfolios," Hogan said.

Despite its small drop, the tech-centric Nasdaq was bolstered by megacaps such as Tesla and Nvidia, which began to claw their way back following drastic plunges on Monday.

The electric car maker bounced 3.8 percent after Trump announced he was buying one of its vehicles.

And AI chipmaker Nvidia was in positive territory Tuesday, climbing 1.7 percent after tumbling one day prior. (AFP)