S&P 500 notches new record-high above 4,300

• Wall Street's main indexes post modest daily gains on Thursday.
• Energy shares surge on rallying crude oil prices.
• Defensive sectors trade in the negative territory after the opening bell.

Wall Street's main indexes opened modestly higher on Thursday. As of writing, the S&P 500 Index was trading at a new record-high of 4,303, rising 0.17% on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.06% at 34,527 and the Nasdaq Composite is virtually unchanged at 14,555.

Earlier in the day, the data published by the US Department of Labor showed that the weekly Initial Jobless Claims fell to the lowest level since March 2020 at 364,000 and this reading helped market sentiment improve.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index is up 1.75% supported by a 3.4% gain witnessed in US crude oil prices. Boosted by reports claiming that OPEC+ will debate an extension to output cuts until the end of 2022, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate rose above $76 for the first time since October 2018.

On the other hand, the defensive Real Estate and Utilities indexes post modest losses following the opening bell.

S&P 500 chart (daily)