Major U.S. market indexes were trading higher on Tuesday, fueled by continued optimism in anticipation of more corporate earnings and upcoming speeches by the Federal Reserve this week.

Wall Street posted back-to-back days of gains on Monday. The S&P 500 was up 1%, the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the session up 0.5%.

The Federal Reserve needs more confidence to ease inflation

Although softer-than-expected payrolls data increased optimism about some cooling in the labor market, Federal Reserve officials signaled on Monday that they still need more confidence that inflation is easing to begin cutting interest rates.

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin stated that current monetary policy is tight enough to help inflation reach the Fed’s 2% annual target and that the robust labor market allows the bank to maintain this policy until the target is achieved. 

New York Fed President John Williams also said that current monetary conditions are sufficient to restrain inflation.

More central bank officials are set to speak this week, including Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari on Tuesday.

For the Fed, inflation remains the main point of contention when considering rate cuts, as price pressures rose more than expected in the first quarter and were well above the Fed’s 2% annual target.

Disney earnings top the list of results

First-quarter earnings season continues this week, featuring the Walt Disney Company’s (DIS) earnings as Tuesday’s highlight.

Oil majors Duke Energy Corporation (DUK) and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY), along with Kenvue (KVUE), a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), will release their financial results during this trading session.

Apple (AAPL) is also in the spotlight after the Wall Street Journal reported, based on sources familiar with the matter, that the tech giant is developing its own chip to run artificial intelligence software in data centers.

Apple, which has lagged behind its competitors in the field of artificial intelligence, has not responded to questions regarding its plans for the technology.