Ukraine crisis: US stocks lower amid Ukraine uncertainty

Representative image

Wall Street stocks retreated early Wednesday, giving back some of the prior session's gains amid skepticism over Russia's latest statements on Ukraine, while investors digested strong US retail sales data.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg indicated that major questions persist about Russia's announcement Tuesday that it was pulling troops back from the Ukrainian border.

"It remains to be seen whether there is a Russian withdrawal," Stoltenberg said.

Meanwhile, US retail sales rose 3.8 percent last month, the Commerce Department said, double what was expected and a dramatic reversal of the 2.5 percent decline in December, which was worse than originally reported.

About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5 percent at 34,804.12.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.7 percent to 4,439.31, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 1.3 percent to 13,956.69.

Investors are looking ahead to the release later Wednesday of minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting.

Fed officials have signaled plans to significantly tighten monetary supply this year, including through multiple interest rate hikes.

Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare said the relative steadiness of US Treasury yields in response to Tuesday's producer price inflation report could be a hopeful sign for investors.

"If this resilience continues, the stock market could eventually take some comfort in the notion that the Treasury market is starting to believe peak inflation has arrived and that the Fed's likely response in the near term has been priced in already," O'Hare said.