The day’s results

?     Standard & Poor’s 500: +1.38 percent to  1,871.12

?     Dow Jones Industrial Average: +1.35 percent to 16,385.83

?     NASDAQ: +1.58 percent to 4,344.90

 

Stocks rallied during Tuesday’s trading session on Wall Street, erasing the losses incurred by the previous session’s panicked sell-off and then gaining some, as investors rejoiced in assurances given by President Vladimir Putin that would not be annexing any part of the Ukraine, as Russian troops were ordered to back off of their neighbor’s border.

While Monday saw the S&P 500 to its most severe losses of 2014 so far, Tuesday sent both the S&P and the Dow to year-to-date highs. The situation in Eastern Europe is by no means settled, but the correlation between Putin’s de-escalation announcement and massive losses on the Russian stock market did not go unnoticed.

 

Our Top Stories

?     Equities.com contributor John Mauldin provides us with three takes on the crisis in Ukraine in his latest piece.

?     Andrew Klips reports on the very dismal earnings report released by Radio Shack Corp. (RHS) ahead of Tuesday’s opening bell.

?     Senior Editor Joel Anderson discusses small-cap pharmaceutical firm Oxygen Biotherapeutics (OXBT) , whose shares jumped during Tuesday’s session after good news from the FDA.

?     Senior Editor and Bitcoin correspondent Jacob Harper has the latest on the digital currency’s post-disaster surge.

?     Winsor Hoang discusses some of the advantages that are made possible by using algorithmic trading.

?     Equities.com Small-Cap Star DryShips Inc (DRYS) has been making gains recently.

?     Senior Editor Michael Teague on 5 junior mining stocks from Canada that behaved a lot like safe havens during Monday’s sell-off.

 

On the S&P 500

Tech stocks were the day’s most heavily traded, with Facebook (FB) gaining over 2 percent. Hardware manufacturers had a particularly good day, as Cisco Systems (CSCO) , Micron Technology (MU) , EMC Corporation (EMC) andMicrosoft (MSFT) all closed higher.

 

On the Dow

All 30 of the Dow Industrials gained on the day, with American Express (AXP) leading the way up, and Walt Disney Co. (DIS) not far behind on gains of nearly 3 percent. Meanwhile oil and gas giants Chevron (CVX) and ExxonMobil (XOM) recuperated their losses, up half a percent and 1 percent respectively.

 

On the NASDAQ

The exchange’s most impressive performer was battery manufacturer Plug Power Inc. (PLUG) , who saw shares adding another 15 percent in what has been a string of up days in the wake of its Wal-Mart (WMT) deal. Tech stocks dominated here as well, with the highest volume gains going to Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) , Groupon (GRPN) , and QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM) . Meanwhile, BlackBerry (BBRY) cooled off after the previous day’s surge, closing Tuesday down a slight 0.3 percent.