Wall Street open with modest gains, await Yellen speech

Major US equity indices witnessed a lackluster opening on Monday as investors now look forward to a speech by the Fed Chair Janet Yallen for any additional clues on the central bank's monetary policy outlook.

During opening trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added around 15-points and rose to 19,860, with the very important 20,000 psychological mark still elusive despite of the recent upsurge. Meanwhile, the broader S&P 500 Index opened with modest gains of 2-points to 2260, while tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index higher by 4-points at 5,440.

Given the magnitude of post-US presidential election strong rally in stock markets, with all three major indices hitting all-time high levels, some analysts not believe that the markets have run away too far too fast and hence, might not witness the so-called Santa Claus rally, which refers to a strong-move towards the end of year, typically around Christmas.

Investors on Monday will look forward to a speech by the Fed Chair Janet Yellen, which comes less than a week after the central bank raised interest rates for only the second time since the financial crisis and projected a faster pace of rate-hikes in 2017.

In currency markets, the overall US Dollar Index has managed to reverse early profit-taking slide and remained closer to the 14-year touched last week in the aftermath of hawkish Fed forecast for 2017. Meanwhile, WTI crude oil seesawed between tepid gains and minor losses as markets now turned skeptic over adherence to the recent oil production cut agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC producers.