Wall Street stocks finished lower on Tuesday following news of solid bank earnings as investors monitor developments in the US-China trade war after last week's market gyrations.

"It's quiet," said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments. "Right now, you have a situation of digestion or the market consolidating a lot of volatility over the last few weeks."

The Dow Jones finished 0.4 percent lower at 40,368.

The S&P 500 declined 0.2 percent to 5,396 while the Nasdaq slipped 0.1 percent to 16,823.

Investors welcomed a calmer US Treasury market after last week's spike in US Treasury bond yields. But there is still a lot of uncertainty among market participants.

"Will we have relief or progress with the trade tariff situation or is the situation going to get worse?" Sarhan said. "We don't know. That question mark is leading investors to hold off from taking any big positions."

Bank of America rose 3.6 percent, while Citigroup gained 1.8 percent as large lenders concluded a solid round of first-quarter earnings results.

Netflix surged 4.8 percent following a Wall Street Journal report that said the streaming company is targeting a doubling of revenue by 2030. (AFP)