Investing.com – Wall Street rose on Tuesday as potential talks between North Korea and the U.S. and global resistance to proposed metal tariffs boosted investor confidence.
The S&P 500 was up half a point or 0.02% to 2,721.58 as of 9:46 AM ET (14:46 GMT) while the Dow composite increased 19 points or 0.08% to 24,894.16, and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite rose 15 points or 0.21% to 7,346.23.
North Korea is willing to talk to the U.S. on denuclearization as long as its regime is not threatened, South Korea said on Tuesday. U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that “possible progress being made in talks with North Korea” and “we will see what happens.”
Markets have eased back from earlier fears of a possible trade ware. Trump announced last week that the United States would impose 25% import tariffs on steel and 10% tariffs on aluminum.
The proposal has been widely criticized, with the U.S. facing backlash from world leaders. Leading Republicans have also pressured Trump to reconsider the plan. While uncertainty lingers, some investors feel the tariffs are all talk, as Trump tweeted that he would be willing to be flexible on trade with Canada and Mexico if they agreed to a “fair” North American Free Trade Agreement.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) was among the biggest gainers after the morning bell, rising 1.07% after it won its first Oscar for best documentary feature. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) increased 2.13% while semiconductor Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) was up 2.69% and General Electric (NYSE:GE) inched up 1.44%.
Elsewhere retailer Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) slumped 2.03% after its earnings came in less than expected and payment processor Square (NYSE:SQ) was down 2.28% while Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) decreased 1.16%.
In Europe stocks were up. In Germany the DAX rose 61 points or 0.51% while France’s CAC 40 increased 21 points or 0.42% and in London the FTSE 100 gained 51 points or 0.72%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 was up 33 points or 0.35% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 inched up 10 points or 0.31%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.95% to $1,332.40 a troy ounce while crude oil futures increased 0.14% to $62.66 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.40% to 89.60.