S&P 500 Index opens modestly lower, energy and financial stocks suffer heavy losses

• S&P 500 struggles to build on Wednesday’s gains.
• S&P 500 Energy Index is down nearly 2% on Thursday.
• Technology shares post modest gains in the early trade.

Wall Street’s main indexes opened mixed on Thursday amid varying performances of major sectors. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5% on the day at 29,252, the S&P 500 Index was down 0.3% at 3,561 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.6% at 11,960.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index is down nearly 2%. Meanwhile, slumping US Treasury bond yields weigh on the Financials Index, which was last losing 1.8% on the day. 

On the other hand, the Technolgy Index and the Communication Services indexes post modest gains in the early trade, helping the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite remain in the positive territory.

Earlier in the day, the US Department of Labor reported that Initial Jobless Claims declined by 48,000 to 709,000 last week but this upbeat reading failed to provide a boost to risk sentiment.

S&P 500 chart (daily)