Wall Street opens lower, rising crude oil prices support energy shares

• Resurfacing coronavirus fears weigh on risk-sensitive assets on Thursday.
• Energy shares post modest gains as crude oil continues to climb higher.
• Falling Treasury bond yields drag financial shares lower.

Wall Street’s main indexes started the day in the negative territory on Thursday as the rising number of coronavirus infections outside of China, namely Japan and South Korea, forced investors to reassess the impact of the epidemic on the global economy.

As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were both down 0.2% on the day while the Nasdaq Composite was erasing 0.4%.

Oil recovery lifts energy shares

Among the 11-major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index is the only one in the negative territory boosted by rising crude oil prices. At the moment, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate is up 1% on the day at $54.05. On the other hand, the risk-sensitive Technology Index is down 0.25 and the Financials Index, which seems to be underperforming amid a 1.8% drop in 10-year US T-bond yields, is erasing 0.2% in the early trade.