Wall Street opens modestly lower dragged by financials

• Falling US Treasury bond yields weigh on the Financials Index.
• Defensive sectors stay in positive territory after the opening bell.

Wall STreet's main indexes started the day modestly lower on Wednesday as the risk sentiment seems to have taken a hit amid the uncertainty surrounding the United States (US)-China trade dispute. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.25% on the day while the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 were both erasing 0.3%.

Among the 11-major S&P 500 sectors, the Financials Index is losing 0.8% pressured by a more-than-3% drop in the 10-year US Treasury bond yield. On the other hand, defensive sectors, Real Estate, Utilities, Consumer Staples, are posting gains in the early trade to reflect the dismal market mood.

According to his recently published remarks, Jerome Powell, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, will tell the Joint Economic Committee of Congress that the baseline outlook for the US economy remains favourable. "The monetary policy is likely to remain appropriate as long as incoming data broadly remains consistent with the Fed's economic outlook," Powell is set to repeat on Wednesday.