US stocks pressured by worries over inflation, Ukraine

NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street stocks finished a choppy session mostly lower Monday (Feb 7), extending a run of volatility amid worries over monetary policy and Ukraine tensions.

While stocks flirted with positive territory, two of the three major indices ended up lower as markets await critical United States consumer price data later in the week that will help determine how aggressively the Federal Reserve responds to inflation.

"Stocks remain under pressure," said a note from US Bank Wealth Management's Terry Sandven.

"Near-term, equity price stabilisation is unlikely to occur until certainty around the timing and magnitude of Federal Reserve interest rate increases become better known."

French President Emmanuel Macron met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow, while US President Joe Biden met with Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the impasse over Ukraine - another big source of unease.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished flat at 35,091.13.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.4 per cent to 4,483.87, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.6 percent to 14,015.67.

Among individual companies, Spirit Airlines was 17.1 per cent higher and Frontier Airlines 3.5 per cent higher after the two companies announced a US$6.6 billion (S$8.87 billion) deal to merge, creating the nation's fifth-largest airline.

Peloton Interactive surged 20.9 per cent following reports the at-home exercise company could be acquired by Amazon, or another suitor.

Tyson Foods jumped 12.2 per cent as it reported quarterly earnings more than double those of the year-ago period following a 23.6 per cent rise in revenues to US$12.9 billion.

This week's earnings calendar includes results from Pfizer, Disney and Peloton.