By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 climbed Tuesday, led by energy and financials, as the Federal Reserve kicked off its two-day meeting.

It rose 0.6% and the gained 0.3% or 90 points. The added 0.411%.

Energy was up more than 2% despite weakness in oil prices amid ongoing concerns that Covid-19 lockdowns in China are likely to stem energy demand in the world’s second largest economy.

March crude production was still “comparatively high” in China, Commerzbank (ETR:) said, citing the National Bureau of Statistics. However, this is expected to change in April due to China’s lockdowns affecting demand.  

BP (NYSE) jumped over 5% following the release of quarterly results by the major oil company. The top and bottom line beats were reported.

The financial sector was also involved in the lifting of the market as investors returned to banks stocks after the surge in Treasury yields.

JPMorgan (NYSE) – Bank of America(NYSE:) Citigroup The sector’s top gainers were (NYSE:), with the latter rising more than 33%.

“We think that the simple story that rising rates are good for banks is still very much in place, particularly the first 200-300 basis points of a rate hike cycle,” {{Oppenheimer said in a note}}.

While technology stocks were buoyed by the slip in Treasury yields, investors are still cautious about investing in growth areas of the market as the Federal Reserve prepares to increase its pace of tightening monetary policy.   

To combat persistently high inflation, the Fed will likely raise rates 50 basis points Wednesday.

“The sentiment around the tech space right now is so poor and so hinged to rates (Treasury yields) that even when rates come down, tech stocks don’t considerably outperform,” David Wagner, portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors told Investing.com in an interview on Tuesday.

Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook (NASDAQ:) led the decline in big tech, falling 6%, while Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:), Amazon (NASDAQ:),  Microsoft  (NASDAQ:) and Apple (NASDAQ:) were also in the red.

The chip stocks lost some gains and traded flat. However, they will be more in the spotlight after the close bell when Advanced Micro Devices’ (NASDAQ:) quarterly results are announced.

Earnings: Pfizer (NYSE: Expedia Investor attention was centered on the NASDAQ (NASDAQ)

Pfizer was up more than 1% as better-than-expected first-quarter revenue and earnings helped offset softer guidance on the company’s Covid-19 paxlovid.

Expedia fell more than 13% following mixed quarterly results from travel booking company. Expectations that the majority of upside potential from rebounding travel demand will be priced in have led to Expedia’s slide.

“The company remains well positioned to benefit as developed market travel rebounds, however, we continue to believe both a strong recovery as well as future margin expansion is fairly baked into shares,” RBC said in a note.