Stocks mixed following rally as investors monitor developments in

U.S. stocks were mixed Tuesday as investors monitored the war in Ukraine and braced for the possibility of new European sanctions against Russia.

The S&P 500 fell roughly 0.3%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was near breakeven. The Nasdaq Composite was down 1.2%, paring gains from a rally in the previous trading session prompted by a 27% surge in Twitter (TWTR) that came after Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk revealed he purchased a 9.2% stake in the social media company. Twitter again inched higher on Tuesday after the company said it would name musk to its board, a day after the Tesla boss disclosed his stake.

Meanwhile, WTI crude oil advanced nearly 1% to trade at about $104 per barrel.

Musk is “speaking with his money by saying that Twitter is an undervalued platform,” MKM Partners’ Rohit Kulkarni told Yahoo Finance Live. “He sees there are things they can do to improve the service, and he’s definitely hinting at a more active role.”

Wedbush Securities analyst and Tesla bull Dan Ives also told Yahoo Finance he predicts Musk will have an active stake in the social media platform over the coming weeks or months, and that his recent snap up of shares was “just the appetizer.”

Separately, Musk’s own company, electric-vehicle giant Tesla, contributed to the gains that propelled a take-off for tech during Monday’s trading session. Shares of the EV carmaker jumped nearly 6% after it reported vehicle delivery figures this weekend that came in higher than the same period last year.

Recession jitters were at bay on Monday after a closely-monitored portion of the Treasury yield curve inverted last week and spooked investors over the possibility of an imminent economic contraction. The phenomenon has a history of predicting a recession, with each of the last eight slowdowns dating back to 1969 preceded by a yield curve inversion. As of Monday morning, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note remained below that on the shorter-term 2-year note.

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Still, worries about an economic downturn were not completely off the table for strategists.

Nomura Chief U.S. economist Robert Dent told Yahoo Finance Live he sees the potential for a “mild recession”

“We think that the cumulative risk of a recession between now and the end of 2024 stands at about 35% to 40%,” he said. “A lot of that is just coming from what we think is going to be this very aggressive response from the Fed to actually get inflation under control and make sure the labor market actually cools down.”

Uncertainty around the crisis in Eastern Europe also continues to be a headwind for investors. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon in his widely-read shareholder letter warned that the war in Ukraine is likely to meaningfully slow the U.S. and global economy. In the U.S. specifically, the bank estimates the U.S. economy will grow roughly 2.5%, a downgrade from the institution’s initial GDP forecast of 3%, with larger cuts to forecasts on Russia and Europe’s economic outlooks.

“We do not…