Wall Street suffers heavy losses in early trade, VIX up 20%

Major equity indexes in the United States started the day sharply lower on Thursday as the flight-to-safety continues to dominate the action while investors are waiting for the outcome of the U.S.-China trade talks. The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, was last up 20% on the day to reflect the sour market mood. At the moment, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are both down 1.2% on the day while the Nasdaq Composite was losing 1.6%.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, which are all in the negative territory, the risk-sensitive Technology Index is losing more than 2%. Moreover, the 10-year Treasury bond yield is down more than 2% on the day to weigh on the Financials Index, which was last down 1.3%.