By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com — The S&P 500 rallied Tuesday, as signs of easing Russia-Ukraine tensions gave investors the green light to buy the recent dip in stocks, with tech stocks leading the charge.

They rose 1.6% and gained 1.2% (or 422 points), respectively.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia was “of course” not looking to go war with Ukraine, and pointed to proposals laid out by Moscow as a basis for finding a diplomatic resolution to Ukraine’s security crisis.

Do we really want it? Yes, but not. Putin responded to a question regarding whether Russia would like to declare war in Europe.

Putin has demanded the U.S. and its allies provide guarantees that Ukraine won’t be allowed to join the NATO military alliance, which he has flagged as a threat to Russia.

The U.S. president Biden reiterated, however that Russia’s attack on Ukraine is still possible, but that NATO was not an imminent threat to Russia. 

Biden stated that the United States and NATO were not an imminent threat to Russia. “Neither NATO nor the United States have missiles in Ukraine. “We don’t have any plans to add them.”

The reduction of Russia-Ukraine tensions has restored investor risk appetite. Tech stocks are in high demand, particularly chips stocks.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF NASDAQ: climbed more than 5% thanks to a 9% rally in NVIDIA (NASDAQ :), ahead of Wednesday’s quarterly results.

The chipmaker’s gaming and data center businesses are expected to help it deliver “a significant beat and raise,”  Piper Sandler said in a note, according to Barons

Big tech including Apple (NASDAQ:), Amazon (NASDAQ:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:), Alphabet (NASDAQ:), and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:) were also in the ascendency.

Facebook paid $90 million in settlement to settle a privacy case that had been ongoing for years. The lawsuit claimed Facebook kept records of user’s internet activities even after users logged out.

Energy stocks ended in red due to a drop in oil prices triggered by geopolitical tensions.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:), Marathon Oil (NYSE:), and Diamondback Energy  (NASDAQ:) led the declines in the sector.

Wall Street risk-on sentiment returned, prompting investors to sell U.S. Treasuries. Yields rose as more data indicated inflation pressures.

Following a 0.3% rise in December, January’s price index rose 1.0% more than was expected. In January, producer price growth was 9.7% year over year. It is the biggest gain in recorded history dating back to 2010.

The inflation report arrives a day ahead of the Federal Reserve’s minutes for the January meeting that could provide insights into the central bank’s thinking on tightening monetary policy.

The odds of a 50% rate hike at the Fed’s meeting next stood at about 61% versus 27.9% a week ago, according to Investing.com’s

In other news, Virgin Galactic (NYSE:) jumped 32% on signs of increased commercial activity after the space tourism company said it would start selling tickets to the public on Feb. 16.