NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street stocks retreated on Thursday (March 3) as investors monitored the worsening toll of the Russian invasion of Ukraine amid worries over high oil prices.

Hopes for a quick end to the war faded as French President Emmanuel Macron said he fears the "worst is to come" after a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian forces took the Black Sea port of Kherson in southern Ukraine, the first major city to fall after a string of setbacks for Moscow. They also pounded the besieged port city of Mariupol, which is without water or power.

"It feels like more escalation," said Art Hogan, chief strategist at National Securities, adding that investors are unnerved by the rise in oil prices over worries about the stability of Russian crude production.

"The longer you stay at elevated levels the more of a drag there is on the global economy," Hogan said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.3 per cent to 33,794.66.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.5 per cent to 4,363.49, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 1.6 per cent to 13,537.94 following big drops in Amazon and Tesla.

A survey from the Institute for Supply Management showed growth in the services sector slowing as rising prices and shortages of labor and materials hampered businesses.

The report comes ahead of Friday's closely-watched government jobs data.

Among individual stocks, Kroger surged 11.6 per cent as the grocery chain reported better-than-expected profits following a 7.5 per cent jump in quarterly revenues to US$33 billion.

Best Buy jumped 9.2 per cent after the appliance retailer announced a 26 per cent hike in its investor dividend, news that offset a drop in quarterly earnings.

Follow The Straits Times' live coverage on the Ukraine crisis here.