Around 2:10 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones index lost 0.42%, the Nasdaq advanced 0.49% and the S&P 500 fell 0.18%.

On Tuesday, driven by company results and a falling dollar, the Dow Jones index had gained 2.43% to 31,827.05 points, the Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, 3.11% to 11,713.15 points, and the S&P 500 2.76% to 3,936.69 points.

Wall Street is moving "in a contained fashion in early trading on the heels of strong gains the day before, as markets digest the second-quarter earnings season," Schwab analysts said in a note.

"The opening is a bit weak," commented Spartan Capital's Peter Cardillo for AFP.

"I think the news that Russian forces are bombing eastern and southern Ukraine is prompting investors to be a little cautious and take advantage of yesterday's jump," he said, while believing in a rising close.

"The fact that the European Union is trying to encourage a 15% reduction in its energy consumption also weighs on the energy sector", underlined the analyst.

Brussels on Wednesday proposed a plan to reduce European gas demand by 15% to overcome the drop in Russian deliveries.

The energy sector lost 1.37%, in line with the decline in oil prices.

Occidental Petroleum dropped 1.72% as did Schlumberger.

Real estate continued to be the focus of investors' attention as home resales fell 5.4% in June, much more than analysts expected.

This bad figure comes after a drastic drop in housing starts in June announced the day before, not to mention a demand for mortgages down 6% last week, to a 22-year low.

Among the results of companies, are expected in particular Tesla (-0.53%) and United Airlines (-0.27%) after the closing.

"So far, they have been more or less correct, although a little mixed," judged Peter Cardillo.

Netflix, which announced better-than-expected results on Tuesday with a lower loss of subscribers than expected, rose slightly by 1%, failing to maintain the previous day's momentum observed in electronic exchanges according to closure (+8%).

On the bond market, rates on 10-year Treasury bills stood at 2.98% against 3.02% at the end of the day the day before, still slightly lower than two-year rates (3.02%).

© 2022 AFP