S&P 500 Index turns flat after opening modestly higher

• Wall Street's main indexes opened in the positive territory on Friday.
• Defensive sectors register modest losses in early trade.
• S&P 500 Materials Index is up 0.7% as the best-performing major sector.

Major equity indexes in the US staged a sharp U-turn in the second half of the day on Thursday and closed deep in the negative territory. With the market mood improving on Friday, Wall Street opened modestly higher.

Nevertheless, risk flows struggle to dominate the markets in the absence of significant fundamental drivers. As of writing, the S&P 500 Index was up 0.08% on the day at 3,341, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was gaining 0.18% at 27,583 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.18% at 10,908.

The only data from the US showed on Friday that the core Consumer Price Index ticked higher to 1.7% in August from 1.6% in July but had little to no impact on market sentiment.

The S&P 500 Materials Index is up 0.83% as the best best-performing major sector in the early trade. On the other hand, the Utilities Index and the Technology Index are down 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively.

S&P 500 chart (daily)