Wall Street ends higher as traders focus on Fed

STORY: U.S. stocks closed higher on Tuesday, with the Dow ticking up marginally, the S&P 500 adding a quarter of a percent and the Nasdaq gaining nearly half a percent.The Federal Reserve began its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday amid investors' worries about high oil prices and the Middle East conflict.Rob Haworth is senior investment strategy director at U.S. Bank Asset Management Group."Really, the market is waiting for the Fed tomorrow. And I think the market's giving us a little credit and a little leeway before the Fed to try and, hopefully the Fed can make some sense of how they're thinking about oil and elevated oil prices and the war and what their forward view is. So we're getting a little bit of a bounce, but I'm not sure it's going to last depending upon what the Fed says tomorrow, and what their dot plot tells us and, in particular, what Chair Powell says in his press conference."While traders expect the Fed to keep borrowing costs unchanged now, rate futures suggest expectations of one rate cut toward the end of the year, down from around two before the war, according to LSEG data.Stocks on the move Tuesday included airline and travel companies, which rebounded from losses in recent weeks related to surging energy prices due to the Middle East conflict.Shares of Delta rose 6.5%, while American Airlines gained 3.5% after both companies raised their revenue guidance for the current quarter.Norwegian Cruise Line and Expedia Group rose more than 2% and 4%, respectively.Energy companies Occidental and ConocoPhillips also gained, tracking higher crude prices.And shares of Uber rallied more than 4% after the ride-hailing app announced plans to roll out robotaxis in 28 cities starting next year, powered by Nvidia's autonomous driving software.