US midday: Stocks edge higher after Russia says ready to continue talks

Stocks on Wall Street were mostly edging higher following the previous week's drubbing on the back of ongoing rate hike worries and following warnings of a possible imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

However, investors breathed a sigh of relief after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, gave the green light for diplomatic talks to continue.

As of 1745 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrials was trading lower by 55.72 points at 34,678.55, alongside a 2.37 point rise on the S&P 500 to 4,420.48 while the Nasdaq Composite was up by 107.47 points to 13,901.31.

In parallel, April gold futures on COMEX were climbing 1.12% to $1,862.80/oz., whilst front-dated West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures had reversed course to trade up by 0.61% to $93.66 a barrel and the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was climbing by seven basis points to 2.02%.

On 11 February, US intelligence warned that an invasion could come as soon as Wednesday, although that was only one possible scenario. Not coincidentally perhaps, the latest weather forecasts pointed to warmer than freezing minimum temperatures in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, from Wednesday onwards.

No major economic releases were scheduled for Monday in the US; however, in an interview with CNBC, St.Louis Fed President James Bullard laid out the case for further front-loading the central bank's policy tightening.

For her part, at the weekend, the head of the San Francisco Fed, Mary Daly, sounded a dovish note.

"History tells us with Fed policy, that abrupt and aggressive action can actually have a destabilizing effect on the very growth and price stability we’re trying to achieve," Daly reportedly told CBS.