S&P 500 Index opens modestly lower, holds comfortably above 3,300

• Wall Street’s main indexes opened in the negative territory on Thursday.
• Investors remain cautious despite upbeat Jobless Claims data from US.
• US lawmakers are reportedly discussing how much coronavirus aid is appropriate.

Major equity indexes in the US opened modestly lower on Thursday as investors seem to be opting out to remain on the sidelines while waiting for US lawmakers to reach agreement on the next coronavirus bill. As of writing, The S&P 500 was down 0.13% on the day at 3,322, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was virtually unchanged at 27,208 and the Nasdaq Composite was losing 0.25% at 110,094.

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he was confident that lawmakers will resolve their differences and added that they were still at odds about how much coronavirus aid is appropriate. Meanwhile, “we will reach an agreement on the coronavirus aid bill,” US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNBC.

Earlier in the day, the data published by the US Department of Labor reported the weekly Initial Jobless Claims in the US decreased by 249,000 to 1,186,000 but failed to provide a boost to sentiment.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Communication Services and the Financials indexes post small gains in the early trade. On the other hand, the Materials Index is down 0.36%.

S&P 500 chart (daily)