After about three hours of trading, the broad S&P 500 index is up 0.2 percent and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index 0.4 percent. The Dow Jones industrial index is down 0.1.
The index-heavy chip giants Nvidia and AMD started the day with falling prices.
This after the Financial Times reported that the companies will pay 15 percent of their revenue in China to the US state in exchange for export licenses to China.
But as the day went on, investors regained their appetite for the shares and Nvidia is up 0.5 and AMD 2 percent.
The cautious stance is reinforced by the wait for two important American inflation indicators in the form of a consumer price index (CPI) on Tuesday and a producer price index on Thursday.
All inflation statistics weigh in on the levels of the country's interest rate, which the central bank Federal Reserve (Fed) will next decide on at its meeting on September 17-18.
Jay Woods, global chief strategist at the analysis company Freedom Capital Markets, points particularly to the importance of the CPI statistics.
It will definitely dictate monetary policy, he says according to CNBC.
