Wall Street opens sharply lower with all major sectors posting losses

Major equity indexes in the U.S. started the day in the negative territory on Wednesday with the heightened trade fears hurting the market sentiment and weighing on risk-sensitive assets. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was losing 0.7% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were erasing 0.6% and 0.62%, respectively. In the meantime, the CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, was up nearly 5%.  

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, which are all in the negative territory in the early trade, the Energy Index and the Healthcare Index are down 1.15% and 1% to lead the losers. 

Reports of Chinese technology giant Huawei filing a legal motion seeking to declare a U.S. defence law unconstitutional in an attempt to fight off the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration hinted at further escalation of the trade conflict. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, called Huawei "an instrument of the Chinese government," and repeated that the U.S. "may or may not" get a trade deal with China.