What happened
Shares of Palantir Technologies (PLTR -0.76%) are climbing in today's trading session. The big data analytics company's stock was up roughly 5.5% as of 2:45 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite index was up roughly 1.7%.
Growth-dependent technology stocks are enjoying a day of strong bullish momentum in today's trading, and Palantir stock is getting a boost from the trend. The movement appears to be connected to news that progress is being made on negotiations that could bring an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
More than a month into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it appears that some progress is being made on potential compromises that could bring an end to the conflict. Russian officials said today that the country's military would scale down military operations in northern Ukraine and around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said that the country was potentially open to adopting guarantees of neutral status that would preclude it from joining military alliances or hosting foreign troop bases.
Growth investors have had a daunting array of risk factors to consider in the first quarter of 2022, and that's led to steep sell-offs for Palantir and other companies with highly forward-looking valuations. Even with some recent recovery, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index is still down roughly 6.9% year to date, but investors without relatively high risk tolerance may still want to tread carefully.
Now what
Market turbulence in recent months has led to substantial pullback for Palantir's valuation, but the potential for more volatility in the near term means that even investors who are bullish on the company's long-term future may want to consider dollar-cost averaging into the stock instead of making a big purchase all at once. While it's encouraging to see progress on negotiations between Russian and Ukraine and signs of military de-escalation in parts of the latter country's territory, it's still difficult to predict how the situation will progress from here.
Palantir's share price is down roughly 22.5% year to date, and it trades down roughly 64% from the lifetime high that it hit in January 2021. The company now has a market capitalization of roughly $28.6 billion, and it's valued at approximately 14.3 times this year's expected sales.
