Wall Street advanced on Tuesday as tech shares gained and oil prices fell, while investors assessed unrest in the Middle East.

The Dow Jones rose 0.3 percent to 42,080, while the S&P 500 added 1.0 percent to 5,751.

The Nasdaq jumped 1.5 percent to 18,182.

"Technology is up, and that's helping the sentiment of the market," said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.

Among individual companies, Nvidia shares were up 4.1 percent while Facebook parent Meta Platforms increased 1.4 percent and Microsoft rose 1.3 percent.

Cardillo added that a pullback in oil prices was another positive for the market.

"Oil prices were moving up on anticipation of a retaliation move by Iran. And so far, that hasn't happened," he said.

Brent, the international benchmark, and US contract West Texas Intermediate both slipped by 4.6 percent.

This likely reflected a shift in focus, back on demand.

In an interview published on Tuesday, New York Federal Reserve president John Williams also told the Financial Times that the central bank's bold interest rate cut in September is not necessarily an indication of how it will act in the coming months. (AFP)