Wall Street stocks shrugged off early weakness amid the worsening Russia-Ukraine conflict on Tuesday and finished mostly higher ahead of Nvidia results.

US equities spent much of the early going on the back foot, as Russia threatened major retaliation after Ukraine fired longer-range US missiles at its territory for the first time.

In particular, a nuclear threat from Russian leader Vladimir Putin unsettled investors.

But two of the three major indices later pushed into positive territory, with the Nasdaq finishing at 18,987, up 1.0 percent

The S&P 500 climbed 0.4 percent to 5,916, while the Dow Jones declined 0.3 percent to 43,268.

"We're kind of on our own continent over here," Kim Forrest of Bokeh Capital Partners said of the US investor mindset.

"In time, we would be impacted by an escalation of tensions. But today we're going to shrug that off, because tomorrow we get Nvidia."

Artificial intelligence star Nvidia piled on nearly five percent ahead of results on Wednesday.

Other tech giants also advanced, Netflix and Tesla winning at least 1.5 percent.

Walmart rose three percent as it lifted its full-year forecast on higher profits. Walmart's US business, which accounts for about two-thirds of revenues, enjoyed a solid 5.3 percent gain in comparable store sales.

But Lowe's dropped 4.6 percent as it lifted some of its full-year projections. However, the home-improvement retailer still expects full-year comparable sales to be down at least three percent in 2024. (AFP)