Wall St set to open higher after modest Western sanctions on Russia By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., January 26, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

By Susan Mathew and Devik Jain

(Reuters) -Wall Street was set to open higher on Wednesday after modest initial sanctions by Western nations on Moscow, with investors keeping a close watch on the fast-moving developments in the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

The Dow and the Nasdaq is poised to end a four-session losing streak, while the S&P 500 is set to bounce after ending the previous session more than 10% below its January peak.

Russia's move to send soldiers to two separatist areas in eastern Ukraine resulted in the United States, the European Union, Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan unveiling plans to target banks and elites.

While Germany froze a major gas pipeline project from Russia, Britain on Wednesday banned the country from the issuing of new bonds in its security markets.

"The market is saying that the sanctions are not that severe and therefore we might be seeing a little bit of recovery. But there is still uncertainty out there," said Geetu Sharma, founder and investment manager, AlphasFuture LLC.

Mega-cap growth stocks Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Meta Platforms, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google-owner Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc added between 1% and 1.2% in premarket trading.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc gained 1.8% as the electric-car maker plans to expand parts production at its Shanghai factory to meet growing demand for exports.

Shares of big banks rose with Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) & Co and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) up more than 1% each.

At 08:14 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 236 points, or 0.7%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 33.75 points, or 0.78%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 158.5 points, or 1.14%.

U.S. stocks have had a turbulent start to 2022 as worsening geopolitical tensions hurt investor sentiment already dented by worries about aggressive policy tightening by the Federal Reserve to combat inflation.

Diamondback (NASDAQ:FANG) Energy Inc rose 1.4% after the U.S. shale oil producer reported upbeat fourth-quarter profit and boosted its dividend as fuel prices hit multi-year highs on stronger energy demand.

Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) fell 3.5% after the fertilizer maker posted downbeat quarterly results.

Lowe's (NYSE:LOW) Cos Inc added 2.6% after the home improvement chain raised its full-year sales and profit forecasts. Its results come a day after rival Home Depot (NYSE:HD) slumped almost 9% after warning on profit margins.

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