S&P 500 Index opens lower following Wednesday's rebound

• Wall Street's main indexes trade in the negative territory.
• Upbeat US data failed to provide a boost to market sentiment.
• Energy shares remain on the back foot despite oil's modest recovery.

After posting impressive gains on Wednesday, major equity indexes in the US opened in the negative territory on Thursday. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.45% on the day at 33,976, the S&P 500 was losing 0.32% at 4,160 and the Nasdaq Composite was falling 0.33% at 13,890. 

Earlier in the day, the data from the US showed that the weekly Initial Jobless Claims declined to 547,000 in the week ending April 17 and came in better than the market expectation of 617,000. Furthermore, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's National Activity Index improved to 1.71 in March. Nevertheless, these upbeat figures failed to trigger a positive shift in market sentiment.

All 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 push lower after the opening bell. At the moment, the Energy Index and the Materials Index both lose around 1%. A modest 0.4% recovery seen in US crude oil prices is largely ignored by the market participants. 

S&P 500 chart (daily)