WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After struggling for direction till a little past
noon on Tuesday, stocks began climbing higher, and continued to gain in strength
to eventually end the day's session a firm note.

Concerns about the outlook for interest rates rendered the mood cautious early
on in the session, with investors digesting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome
Powell's speech at the ECB Forum in ., and the JOLTS report that showed a
slight increase in job openings in the country.

Stocks moved higher after bond yields drifted down. The major averages all ended
on a firm note, with the Nasdaq outperforming the Dow and S&P 500.

The Dow ended with a gain of 162.33 points or 0.41 percent at 39,331.85. The S&P
500 settled at 5,509.01, gaining 33.92 points or 0.62%, while the Nasdaq
advanced 149.46 points or 0.84 percent, to 18,028.76.

Data from the Labor Department showed the number of job openings rose to 8.140
million in May, up 221,000 from a month earlier.

Redbook Research said the Redbook Index in the U.S. increased by 5.8 percent in
the week ending June 29, compared to the same week in the previous year.

Investors also noted Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at a central banking forum
in Sintra, Portugal. Powell expressed satisfaction with the progress on
inflation but said he wants to see more before being confident enough to start
cutting interest rates.

'We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward
2% before we start the process of reducing or loosening policy,' he said.

Investors looked ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched
monthly jobs report on Friday.

The report, which is expected to show a slowdown in the pace of job growth in
the month of June, could impact the outlook for interest rates.

On the political front, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that former President
Donald Trump is entitled to immunity from federal prosecution for official
actions he took while in office, has stoked speculation about the possibility of
another Trump presidency.

Tesla Inc. shares soared more than 10 percent, after the company reported higher
than expected sales in the April-June quarter. The electric vehicle maker said
it sold 436,956 vehicles in the latest quarter, down 4.8 percent compared to the
year-ago quarter. But the numbers were better than what analysts had forecast.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. shares rallied about 4.2 percent. Apple Inc.,
Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, JP Morgan Chase, Visa, Mastercard, Costco,
Bank of America, Adobe Inc, Texas Instruments, GE Aerospace, IBM, Analog Devices
and Airbnb gained 1 to 2.5 percent.

Nike, Verizon Communications, Eli Lilly and Nvidia ended weak.

In overseas trading, Asian stocks ended mixed on Tuesday as investors pondered
what the U.S. Supreme Court's immunity decision meant for former president
Donald Trump.

European stocks closed lower, weighed down by the developments on the political
front in the region, comments from some ECB officials that the central bank is
unlikely to cut interest rates anytime soon, and lingering uncertainty about the
outlook for U.S. interest rates.



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