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Investing.com — U.S. stocks closed higher on Tuesday, continuing the previous session’s positive tone helped by peace talks between Ukraine and Russia and ahead of the release of key economic data on jobs and spending.
At 4:08 PM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 338 points or 0.97%, the S&P 500 was up 1.2% and the NASDAQ Composite was up 1.8%.
The three main averages on Wall Street closed higher Monday, with the tech-based Nasdaq Composite leading the way, rising 1.3%, aided by strong gains from Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), which announced plans to split shares if shareholders approve.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiating teams met in Istanbul Tuesday, with the diplomats appearing to be on the verge of a breakthrough while discussing a possible ceasefire.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, an aide to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, earlier tweeted that the delegations “are working in parallel on the entire spectrum of contentious issues.”
Away from eastern Europe, the week sees the release of a lot of important U.S. economic data, including the much-watched monthly nonfarm payrolls report due out Friday.
Ahead of that, JOLTs job openings for February came in at 11.3 million, against expectations for 11 million. The data, along with other jobs data to be released this week, will be studied carefully given the Federal Reserve is seen to be mulling whether to move more aggressively on interest rates at its May meeting.
Expectations of sharp interest rate increases have resulted in the 5-year Treasury yield rising above the 30-year yield, the first such inversion since 2006, prompting fears of a recession.
However, stock investors shouldn’t worry just yet, said strategists at JPMorgan Chase. “Recessions don’t typically start ahead of the curve inverting, and the lead-lag could be very substantial, as long as 2 years,” they said, in a note. “Further, over this timeframe equities tended to beat bonds handsomely.”
In the corporate sector, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) will be in the spotlight after the delivery giant announced its Chief Operating Officer, Raj Subramaniam, will take over as CEO and founder Fred Smith would become executive chairman as of June 1.
Tesla will remain in focus after the electric car manufacturer’s stock rose 8% on Monday, while Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU), Micron (NASDAQ:MU) and RH (NYSE:RH) are set to report earnings.
Oil prices fell Tuesday, though they came off lows reached earlier in the session. There were earlier reports that Saudi Aramco (SE:2222), the world’s largest oil exporter, will likely boost pricing of its main crude variety to a record, suggesting a bullish outlook.
Crude prices had slumped Monday on fears that a surge in Covid-19 cases in China, and the financial hub of Shanghai in particular, will hit demand from the world’s top crude importer.
The American Petroleum Institute reports its weekly inventory data at 4:30 PM ET as usual.
By 4:10 PM ET, U.S. crude futures traded down 0.9% at $105.02 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 0.9% to $108.53. Both benchmark contracts lost around 7% on Monday.
Additionally, gold futures fell 1.1% to $1,918/oz.
This story was originally published at 7:10 AM ET and updated
