S&P 500 opens modestly lower, continues to hold above 3,200

• Wall Street's main indexes opened in the negative territory.
• S&P 500 Energy Index is down nearly 1%.
• Defensive sectors trade in the green on Friday.

Major equity indexes started the last day of the week modestly lower as the market mood remains cautious with the CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX), Wall Street's fear gauge, rising 2% on the day at 29.34.

As of writing, the S&P 500 was down 0.15% on the day at 3,242, Dow Jones Industrial Average was losing 0.2% at 26,770 and the Nasdaq Composite was falling 0.2% at 10.873.

Among the 11-major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index is down 1% pressured by a 0.6% decline seen in the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI). On the other hand, the defensive Utilities, Real Estate and Healthcare indexed register modest gains, confirming the risk-averse market environment.

Earlier in the day, the data from the showed that Durable Goods Orders in August rose by 0.4% and fell short of the market expectation for an increase of 1.5%. Nevertheless, this data had little to no impact on market sentiment.

S&P 500 chart (daily)