S&P 500 opens virtually unchanged, energy and financial stocks underperform

• Wall Street's main indexes trade mixed on Monday.
• Energy and financial stocks suffer heavy losses at the start of the week.

Major equity indexes opened near last week's closing levels amid varying performances of major sectors. As of writing, the S&P 500 Index was virtually unchanged on the day at 3,943, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2% at 32,845 and the Nasdaq Composite was gaining 0.25% at 12,971.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the 500 Energy Index is the biggest daily percentage decliner pressured by a 1.75% drop in the price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate. Additionally, the Financials Index is losing 1.2% as the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield is down nearly 1% after the opening bell. On the other hand, the Utilities Index is rising 1%. 

Earlier in the day, the data published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed that the Empire State Manufacturing Index rose to 17.4 in March from 12.5 in February. Although this reading beat the market expectation of 14.5, it failed to help market sentiment improve.

S&P 500 chart (daily)