The main US equity market gauges were being called to start the day essentially unchanged ahead of this afternoon´s policy meeting at the European Central Bank.

Acting as a backdrop, Russian President Vladimir Putin was cited as having agreed on the need for increased dialogue as the main avenue to de-escalate the current situation in Ukraine, in discussions with the Chairman of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

However, some pro-Russian militants in the Donetsk region have already said that they will not postpone a referendum on independence scheduled to take place on May 11th. Interfax reported throughout the morning on what seemed to be fairly large-scale military manoeuvers by Russia´s strategic nuclear forces.

US monetary policy
Back in the US, speaking to the Council of Foreign Relations Philadelphia, Fed President Charles Plosser argued in favour of a more 'systematic' or rules-based approach to monetary policy, as opossed to the current Chair Janet Yellen´s bias towards greater discretionary power.

Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo was also scheduled to speak at 15:30.

Traders were keeping one eye trained on the latest weekly initial unemployment claims figures, with a decrease being widely expected on the heels of last week´s jump to 340,000 due to the difficulty of adjusting for the later Easter this year.

Company specifics
Oil services outfit Transocean was moving higher after reporting first quarter revenues that came in ahead of analysts' estimates. 

Private-equity firm Apollo Global Management reported a 71% fall in profitability for the first three months of the year.

The latest figures out from the likes of Scripps Networks and AMC Networks came in weaker than expected.

Front month West Texas crude futures were down by 0.20% to the $100.50/barrel mark on the NYMEX.

10-year US Treasury yields advanced by three basis points to the 2.62% level.

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