US OPEN: Wall Street mixed as investors weigh Russia-Ukraine tensions

• US stock index futures rebounded after Lavrov's comments 
• Fed's Bullard wants to 'front-load' rate hikes to get inflation under control
• Splunk (SPLK.US) stock surges on M&A news 

Wall Street indices launched today's session in mixed moods after the Russian foreign minister's Lavrov suggested to President Putin that Moscow should continue the diplomatic path in its efforts to extract security guarantees from the west. This definitely improved the market sentiment after Friday's sell-off which occurred after US security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN that Russia could launch an invasion of Ukraine even before Winter Olympics end. This week, aside from geopolitical tensions,  investors will focus on FOMC minutes on Wednesday and speeches from several Fed officials during the week for any updates on the size of a federal funds rate hike next month. Today, St. Louise Fed President James Bullard said that he would like the central bank to "front-load" its rate hikes to quickly remove accommodation and get inflation under control, while Fed's Barkin said he is nervous that labor supply will be short in the decade ahead.

US100 fell sharply on Friday, however buyers failed to break below the major support zone around 14000 pts. In the afternoon index even managed to erase some of the losses following Lavrov's comments. If current sentiment prevails, the index may be heading towards local resistance around 14350 pts, which is marked with lower limit of the 1:1 structure, earlier broken lower boundary of the downward channel and 23.6% Fibonacci retracement of the upward wave launched in March 2020. Source: xStation5

Company news:

Splunk (SPLK.US) stock jumped nearly 8.0% in premarket after Cisco Systems (CSCO.US) reportedly offered to buy the software maker for more than $20 billion, according to  The Wall Street Journal. A deal of that size would represent the networking equipment maker’s largest-ever acquisition.

Splunk (SPLK.US) stock launched today’s session with a bullish price gap and is currently approaching upper limit of the consolidation zone around $123.00, which coincides with 23.6% Fibonacci retracement of the last downward wave. If current sentiment prevails, upward move may accelerate towards next resistance at $133.00. However, if sellers manage to regain control, then another downward impulse towards recent lows at $106.00 may be launched. Source: xStation5

Rivian (RIVN.US) stock fell nearly 2% in premarket despite the news that Soros Fund Management acquired nearly 20 million shares of the electric truck maker worth almost  $2 billion in Q4 of 2021, according to the fund’s quarterly filing. 

Intel (INTC.US) stock rose slightly in premarket after Reuters reported that the tech giant’s Mobileye unit plans to build and deploy self-driving electric shuttles with its partners in the United States in 2024, in a bid to scale up its automated driving system.

Lockheed Martin (LMT.US) stock fell 0.6% in premarket after the aerospace company abandoned its plans to buy rocket engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne $4.4 billion due to regulatory pressure.