Wall Street starts week on back foot amid widespread unrest in US
- Major equity indexes in the US start third quarter in the red.
- Energy and healthcare shares fall sharply on Monday.
Wall Street's main indexes posted gains for the second straight month in May but opened modestly lower on the first trading day of June. The sour market mood seems to be weighing on risk-sensitive stocks on Monday with the CBOE Volatility Index rising nearly 9%.
As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite was losing 0.3%.
Markets turn risk-averse
Earlier in the day, Gilead Sciences announced that phase three trial of its anti-viral drug Remdesivir showed "significantly greater" improvement in patients with moderate coronavirus infections vs standard care. However, this headline failed to allow risk-on flows to take control of the financial markets. In fact, Gilead Sciences Inc's stocks (GILD) are losing more than 3% in the early trade.
Meanwhile, the widespread unrest in major US cities amid mass protests and riots over the weekend is forcing investors to remain cautious on Monday. White House press secretary Kayleigh MyEnany announced that there will be a press briefing at 1800 GMT.
Among the 11-major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index and the Healthcare Index are both down around 1% as the worst performers. On the other hand, the defensive Real Estate Index is rising 0.55%.