Liz Moyer and Peter Nurse

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 AM ET the index was at 0.97% with a gain of 338 points. The 1.2% increase was the most notable. And the 1.8% was the highest.

Wall Street’s three major averages closed higher Monday. Tech-based stocks rose 1.3% thanks to strong gains by Tesla (NASDAQ:), who announced that it would split its shares, provided shareholders consent.

The Turkish diplomats met Tuesday with representatives of the Russian and Ukrainian negotiating sides. They appeared to be at the beginning of an ongoing discussion about a ceasefire. 

Mykhaylo Poolyak, an advisor to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted earlier that delegations are “working in parallel” on the whole spectrum of contentious topics.

This week, quite apart from Eastern Europe, sees the release of significant U.S. economic data including Friday’s much-watched Monthly. 

The February data came in at 11.3million, which is higher than the 11 million anticipated. These data and other data on jobs will be closely examined as the Federal Reserve contemplates whether or not to increase interest rates at its May meeting.

The 5-year Treasury yield has risen above the 30-year yield due to expectations of steep interest rate rises. This is the first inversion of the yield since 2006. It raises concerns of 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.”

FedEx (NYSE) is in the news for corporates after it announced that Raj Subramaniam will become CEO of FedEx and Fred Smith will assume the role as executive chairman.

Tesla will remain in focus after the electric car manufacturer’s stock rose 8% on Monday, while Lululemon Athletica Earnings will be reported by Micron (NASDAQ 🙂 and RH(NYSE :). 

Although oil prices dropped Tuesday afternoon, they still fell to the lowest level since earlier in session. There had been earlier reports that Saudi Aramco (SE:), 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.

As usual, the report its weekly inventory data at 4:30 pm ET.

Futures were trading at $105.02 per barrel by 4:10 pm ET. The contract was down 0.9% to $108.53. On Monday, both benchmark contracts were down around 7%.

The price per ounce fell to $1,918/oz, a decrease of 1.1%

The original publication of this story at 7:10 am ET was updated