Wall Street opens modestly lower on Thursday

Following yesterday's sharp fall in the aftermath of FOMC announcements and Chairman Powell's hawkish remarks, major equity indexes in the United States started the day in a relatively quiet manner on Thursday. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5%, the S&P 500 was losing 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite was dropping 0.3% on a daily basis.

Out of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, which are all in the negative territory in the early trade, Consumer Staples Index leads the losses with a 1.4% drop. Moreover, with the barrel of West Texas Intermediate losing near 2% on the day, the Energy Index is down 1.2%.

Earlier today, the data published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed that the regional manufacturing sector lost momentum in December. Meanwhile, investors will be paying close attention to falling T-bond yields and a possible yield curve inversion. At the moment, the 10-year T-bond yield is down 0.6% on the day at 2.76%.