Stocks finished higher Tuesday, with the Dow approaching a record high, as investors cheered a round of better-than-expected quarterly earnings and largely shrugged off worries over Ukraine.

"Earning expectations were essentially zero, so I'm not sure what we accomplished. Guidance appears to be a little more positive, so that's good," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank.

Twitter and EBay are among major companies slated to post earnings after the closing bell. Shares of both companies were higher.

The Dow is less than 100 points from hitting its all-time high of 16,631.63.

The Federal Open Market Committee kicked off its two-day meeting in Washington. Policy makers are expected to announce a fourth cut in the Federal Reserve's monthly bond purchases on Wednesday.

"With more than half of the S&P in, investors have a good idea of what the results are likely to be, so now we're looking back at the economy and the FOMC," said Ablin.

Investors largely shrugged off news from Ukraine. Earlier, the United States and European Union imposed more sanctions on Russia for its role in backing the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine.

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101623614