Wall Street struggles to find direction in early trade on Wednesday

Major equity indexes in the U.S. started the day in a calm manner on Wednesday as investors are moving to the sidelines while waiting for the next significant catalyst. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were both virtually unchanged on the day while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.2%.

Today's data from the U.S. showed that the annual Consumer Price Index in May fell to 1.8% from 2% in April and missed the analysts' estimate of 1.9%. The core CPI in the same period came in at 0.1% and 2% on a monthly and yearly basis, respectively, but was largely ignored by the participants.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, dragged by a nearly 2% drop witnessed in the barrel of WTI crude oil, the Energy Index is down 1.05% on the day to lead the losers. On the other hand, the Utilities Index is up 1.22% to offset the negative impact of falling energy shares on major indexes.