S&P 500 opens modestly lower as risk rally wanes

• Wall Street's main indexes started the day in the negative territory.
• Energy shares underperform amid OPEC+ meeting uncertainty.

Major equity indexes in the United States started the day slightly lower on Thursday as the risk rally seems to be losing momentum. As of writing, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% on the day while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite were both losing around 0.2%.

Energy shares fall on Thursday

Earlier in the day, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor showed that 1.87 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week. This figure came in worse than the market expectation of 1.8 million and weighed on the sentiment. Additionally, the international trade deficit of the US widened to $49.4 billion in April from $42.3 billion.

Among the 11-major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index is down 1.2% as the worst performer amid uncertainty surrounding the OPEC+ meeting. On the other hand, the Consumer Staples and the Industrials indexes stay flat in the early trade.