S&P 500 Index opens sharply lower, closes in on 3,300
|- Wall Street's main indexes are posting heavy losses on Wednesday.
- All major sectors of the S&P 500 trade in the negative territory.
- Market mood remains dismal ahead of the presidential election.
Major equity indexes in the US opened with large losses on Wednesday as the coronavirus fears and the upcoming presidential election force investors to seek refuge. As of writing, the S&P 500 was down 1.93% on the day at 3,325, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was losing 1.82% at 26,966 and the Nasdaq Composite was falling 2.03% at 11,198.
Mirroring the intense flight to safety, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), Wall Street's fear gauge, is up nearly 14% on a daily basis.
All 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 trade in the negative territory. The Energy Index, the Communication Services Index and the Technology Index all lose more than 2% as the worst performers in the early trade. On the other hand, the defensive Utilities Index is losing 0.7%.
Earlier in the day, the data published by the US Census Bureau revealed that the trade deficit in September narrowed modestly to $79.3 billion but had little to no impact on market sentiment.
S&P 500 chart (daily)
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