Wall Street opens mixed on varying performances of major sectors

• Energy shares continue to underperform as oil recovery remains shallow.
• Rising technology shares help Nasdaq push higher on Thursday.
• Fed says program to back emergency government loans to small businesses is fully operational.

Wall Street's main indexes started the day on a mixed note as investors assess the macroeconomic data releases from the US and wait for new guidelines on the re-opening of the economy. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.35% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were adding 0.4% and 1.3%, respectively.

Eyes on US Pres. Trump

The data published by the US Department of Labor revealed that there were 5,245,000 Initial Claims for unemployment benefits in the US in the week ending April 11th. Although this reading came in slightly lower than the previous week's reading of 6,615,000, it remained historically high to reflect the impact of coronavirus-related lockdowns on the labour market.

Later in the day, US President Trump is expected to unveil new guidelines on the reopening of the economy.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index is down more than 2% on the day as crude oil's rebound remains shallow after posting losses in the past five days. On the other hand, the Technology and the Communication Services indexes are up 0.65% and 0.4% respectively to help the tech-sensitive Nasdaq outperform other major indexes.