Wall Street’s major averages slide on Tuesday, as investors look ahead to the kickoff of retail earnings season while also monitoring developments in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. The blue-chip Dow (DJI) trades near even while the benchmark S&P 500 (SP500) slid by 0.

This week's set-piece event is the Jackson Hole central-bank gathering in Wyoming, slated for Thursday through Saturday. Investors will be glued to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech, hoping for any insight into whether the central bank might kick off interest-rate cuts in September.

Wall Street's main indexes closed roughly flat on Monday, after struggling for direction while investors awaited a raft of corporate earnings reports from major retailers for more signs about the state of the economy and the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole.