S&P 500 Index opens higher for sixth straight session, financial stocks slump

• Wall Street's main indexes are trading mixed on Thursday.
• Falling US Treasury bond yields weigh on financial shares.
• Energy stocks regain traction as OPEC meeting gets underway.

Major equity indexes in the US opened mixed on Monday amid varying performances of major sectors. As of writing, the S&P 500 Index was trading at a new all-time high of 4,665, rising 0.12% on the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.15% at 36,110 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.2% at 15,843.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Financials Index is down nearly 1% after the opening bell pressured by the sharp decline witnessed in the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield. On the other hand, the Energy Index is up 1.5% supported by rising crude oil prices ahead of OPEC's announcements.

Earlier in the day, the data from the US showed that Unit Labor Costs increased by 8.3% in the third quarter, surpassing the market expectation of 5.2% by a wide margin. Moreover, weekly Initial Jobless Claims declined to 269,000, the lowest print since the beginning of the pandemic.

S&P 500 chart (daily)