U.S. equity markets had been higher for most of the session on Tuesday, as investors cheered the European Union’s creation of a 750-billion-euro recovery fund and U.S.
regulators continued hammering out a new stimulus agreement.U.S. Republicans and Democrats remained far apart, however, on how much to spend on coronavirus relief, as Democrats called Republicans' $1-trillion-proposal insufficient.The U.S.
benchmark S&P 500 index turned positive for the year, hitting its highest level since Feb. 21.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 159.53 points, or 0.6%, to 26,840.4, the S&P 500 gained 5.46 points, or 0.17%, to 3,257.3 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 86.73 points, or 0.81%, to 10,680.36.Gold soared to a nine-year peak on Tuesday,.