S&P 500 Index opens modestly lower following Tuesday's decline

• Wall Street's main indexes remain on the back foot on Wednesday.
• All major sectors post modest losses after the opening bell.
• Investors wait for FOMC to release July policy meeting minutes.

After closing in the negative territory on Tuesday, Wall Street's main indexes seem to be having a difficult time staging a rebound on Wednesday. As of writing, the S&P 500 was down 0.2% on the day at 4,440, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was losing 0.4% at 35,205 and the Nasdaq Composite was flat at 14,658.

All major sectors of the S&P 500 Index trade in the negative territory after the opening bell. The Financials Index and the Energy Index both lose more than 0.5% as the biggest percentage decliners. On the other hand, the Consumer Discretionary Index is little changes after suffering heavy losses on disappointing Retail Sales data on Tuesday.

Later in the session, the FOMC will release the minutes of its July policy meeting and investors will look for fresh clues regarding the timing of asset tapering.

S&P 500 chart (daily)