us stocks futures wavered while oil prices jumped as russia pounded ukrainian cities and investors awaited testimony from federal reserve chairman jerome powell and a meeting of the organization of the petroleum exporting countries and its allies futures for the sp 500 crept up 01 wednesday a day after the benchmark index fell 16 contracts for the dow jones industrial average rose 02 and those for the technologyfocused nasdaq100 ticked up 01 in premarket trading shares of exxon mobil rose 23 after the energy major said it was halting operations at a multibilliondollar oilandgas project in russia hewlett packard enterprise raised its earnings forecast for the year lifting shares 4 ahead of the bell in europe the pancontinental stoxx europe 600 hovered near the flatline stocks have been volatile in recent weeks investors are responding to fastmoving developments on the ukrainian warfield a volley of sanctions launched by the west on moscow and a succession of major companies cutting ties with russia by boosting energy prices the conflict has added to uncertainty regarding the likely rise in interest rates this year energy markets extended their rapid advance wednesday crude prices surged over 110 a barrel for the first time since 2014 as refiners refused to buy russian oil taking a bite out of global energy supplies brentcrude futures the international benchmark rose 58 to 11103 a barrel extending their advance so far this year to 43 prices leapt in other pockets of the energy market tied to russia european naturalgas prices jumped 30 so far there has been minimal disruption to the pipeline system in ukraine through which about a third of russian gas exports to europe flow according to analysts opec and its russialed allies are due to meet wednesday analysts expect them to proceed with a plan to raise production by 4000000 barrels a day though many members of the cartel are struggling to meet their quotas rising oil prices pose a headache for central banks already dealing with the fastest inflation rates in decades mr powell will begin the first of two days of testimony on monetary policy and the economy when he appears before the house committee on financial services at 10 am et yields on benchmark 10year treasury notes edged up to 1732 before mr powell’s testimony from 1708 tuesday yields and bond prices move in opposite directions lawmakers are likely to press mr powell on the pace of rate increases the outlook for inflation and potential economic fallout from russia’s invasion of ukraine the fed is widely expected to raise interest rates at its march 1516 meeting however traders have dialed back expectations of the number of times the fed will raise rates this year since russia invaded ukraine on thursday they are pricing in a 6 chance that the bank will raise its benchmark rate to 175 or above by the end of the year according to cme group down from 54 a week ago