Encouraging Progress In Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks Lifts U.S. Stocks To Strong Close

(RTTNews) - After holding in positive territory right through the day's session, the U.S. market closed on a firm note on Tuesday with technology shares turning in another strong performance.

The major averages all ended with solid gains. The Dow closed with a gain of 338.30 points or 0.97 percent at 35,294.19. The S&P 500 closed higher by 56.08 points or 1.23 percent at 4,631.60, and the Nasdaq settled at 14,619.64 with a gain of 264.73 points or 1.84%.

Reports about encouraging progress in the cease-fire talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey helped lift investor sentiment.

According to a Reuters report, Russia's deputy defense minister has said that Russia has decided to drastically cut its military activity focused on Kyiv and Chernihiv. Ukrainian negotiators proposed adopting neutral status in exchange for security guarantees.

Investors also digested the latest batch of economic data. A report from the Labor Department showed the number of job openings in the United States was 11.266 million in February of 2022, little changed from an upwardly revised 11.283 million in January.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index in the US rose 19.1 percent in January of 2022, the most since September, following a revised 18.9 percent growth in the previous month

A report released by the Conference Board showed an unexpected improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in the month of March.

The report showed the Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 107.2 in March from a revised 105.7 in February. Economists had expected the index to dip to 107.0 in March from the 110.5 originally reported for the previous month.

Automobile and travel related stocks had a good outing, while energy stocks fell on weak crude oil prices.

Ford shares rallied more than 6 percent. General Motors ended stronger by about 4.6 percent.

Shares of Nielsen Holdings soared 20 percent on reports that a group of private equity investors have signed a deal to buy the firm for $16 billion.

Uber Technologies Inc shares surged higher on reports the company is closing in on a deal with a San Francisco company to add more taxis to its platform.

Visa, Nike, Boeing, Salesforce.com and Walt Disney moved up 2.5 to 3.4 percent. McDonalds, Apple, Microsoft, 3M, Intel and Goldman Sachs gained 1.2 to 2.2 percent.

In overseas trading, Asian stocks ended higher on Tuesday amid hopes about peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the latest round of peace talks with a speech.

European stocks closed sharply higher today, buoyed by reports that the face-to-face peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul have yielded the most significant progress to date.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended down by $1.72 or about 1.6% at $104.24 a barrel. Gold futures for June, the most active contract, settled lower by $26.70 or 1.4% at $1,918.00 an ounce.