NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks dropped early Tuesday as Russia pressed on with its invasion of Ukraine and oil prices rose to fresh multi-year peaks.

On the sixth day of fighting in Ukraine, Russia was striking cities and building up its forces near the capital Kyiv, vowing not to stop until "set goals are achieved."

Stocks have been volatile as Russia escalated the crisis in recent weeks, rallying at times as investors have sometimes bet the conflict's impact won't be as bad as feared.

The rise in oil prices reflects worries that Russian energy supplies could be curtailed. Energy stocks were early gainers Tuesday.

About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.8 percent at 33,632.84.

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The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.5 percent to 4,352.78, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.4 percent at 13,702.33.

Among individual companies, Target surged 11.9 percent as it reported higher earnings on a 9.4 percent jump in quarterly sales to $31 billion.

Chevron rose 3.9 percent after it increased its plan for annual share buybacks to $5 to $10 billion per year, essentially double its earlier range.