Wall Street opens virtually unchanged on Thursday

Major equity indexes in the U.S. started the day flat on Thursday as investors are staying on the sidelines while waiting for the next catalyst, be it headlines surrounding the U.S.-China trade conflict or remarks from Fed policymakers on the interest rate outlook. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were both up 0.1% on the day and the Nasdaq Composite was near yesterday's closing level of 7,221 points.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index adds a little more than 1% to lead the gains. On the other hand, the Industrials and the Communication Services indexes are down 0.4% and 0.2%.

Today's data from the U.S. showed that the trade deficit narrowed to $50.8 billion in April from $51.9 billion in March but was largely ignored by market participants.