By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 fell Monday, after swinging between gains and losses as investors had to contend with reports suggesting that an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine was on the horizon just as hopes were rising that Moscow was open to a diplomatic resolution.

The fell by 0.42% and the plummeted 0.49% or 171 points to the end.

An intraday Facebook post by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine President, stating that Ukraine has been “informed” that an attack will take place on Wednesday created fears about a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy later claimed that his comments were sarcastic. But, the sentiment was lost when Zelenskyy translated the text into English.

CBS reported that Russia advanced its forces into positions for an attack.

In response to the rising tensions, The U.S. State Department moved its embassy staff out of Kyiv to Lviv, amid a “dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday.

After Moscow had indicated its willingness to continue with negotiations to find a solution to the escalating tensions at the Ukraine border, this report was delivered.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier signaled his backing for Russia to continue talks with the U.S. and its allies after his Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described proposals tabled by Washington as “constructive.”

The U.S. rejected Russia’s overarching demand for guarantees that NATO won’t allow Ukraine to join as a member, but offered to discuss limits for missile deployments in Europe, and restrictions on military drills.

Due to potential disruptions in supply, oil prices have been rising rapidly. This has made them the most reliable barometer of tensions along the Ukraine-Russia border. The sharp rise of oil prices couldn’t stop a further 2% drop in energy stocks.

APA (NASDAQ:) Marathon Oil (NYSE: ) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: ) led the decliners.

The rising stock prices of semiconductors supported Tech as a relative outperformer.

Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices led increases of over 2% and 3%. Advanced Micro Devices announced its completion of the acquisition for $50 billion of Xilinx.

Splunk (NASDAQ 🙂 meanwhile soared more than 9 percent after receiving a takeover offer from Cisco Systems (NASDAQ 🙂

After Soros Fund Management announced that it had bought almost 20 million shares in Rivian, an electric vehicle maker, during the fourth quarter of 2011, sentiment about the stock market for these vehicles rose.

Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ 🙂 was up 6.6%, Tesla (NASDAQ 🙂 gained approximately 2%, Nikola (NASDAQ 🙂 increased 3%.

The market was also affected by health care stocks. This is due to weakness in vaccine manufacturers as investors look for exits on fears that declining Covid-19 numbers will reduce coronavirus vaccine demand. Bloomberg Report shows that the monthly inflows of health-care money have fallen to $800m per month from an early 2020 peak at $5 billion.

Novavax (NASDAQ:), Moderna (NASDAQ:) Pfizer (NYSE:) were nursing losses.

Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ) lost some recent gains following a interview by the Financial Times in which Barry McCarthy, CEO of Peloton Interactive and connected fitness equipment manufacturer, said that the potential sale of the company was not possible.