US open: Stocks mixed in the early going
- Stocks trading mixed
- Fed Beige book due out
Dow Jones Industrials: 0.34%
S&P 500: -0.05%
Nasdaq Composite: 0.24%
The main US equity benchmarks were holding slightly higher a little over an hour after the start of trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher by 61.35 points to 17,1,29.05 while the Nasdaq was slightly off 3.93 points to 4,594.26 points.
Wall Street was tracking gains made across European indices on the back of hopes over easing geopolitical tensions in eastern Ukraine.
While the office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that he had agreed on a permanent ceasefire with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, a Kremlin official confirmed that no truce had been agreed. The spokeman said that Russia was not able to negotiate a ceasefire "because it is not a party to the conflict".
Poroshenko then released another modified statement, saying that in fact the two leaders had "resulted in an agreement on ceasefire regime".
Nevertheless, it was enough to push European stocks firmly higher, with the UK's FTSE 100 hitting a 14-year intra-day high and indices across the continent up 1-2%.
The Federal Reserve's Beige Book on regional economic conditions was due out later in the session is also likely to be closely watched.
In corporate news, online retailer Amazon.com declined after saying that its chief financial officer will retire next summer.
Front month West Texas crude futures are higher by 1.06% to $93.87 per barrel on the NYMEX.
US 10-year Treasuries yields are up by one basis point to 2.44%.
AB