S&P 500 Index opens flat below 4,500 despite upbeat US data

• Wall Street's main indexes trade mixed on Thursday.
• Financial stocks post strong gains on rising US T-bond yields.
• Retail Sales in the US rose unexpectedly in August.

Major equity indexes in the US opened mixed amid varying performances of major sectors on Thursday. As of writing, the S&P 500 was flat on the day at 4,480, the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1% at 15,145 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was rising 0.25% at 34,900.

The data published by the US Census Bureau showed on Thursday that Retail Sales in August rose by 0.7% to $618.7 billion. This reading came in much better than the market expectation for a decline of 0.8% but doesn't seem to be having a significant impact on market sentiment.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Financials Index is up 0.55% after the opening bell boosted by a more-than-3% increase witnessed in the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield. On the other hand, the Materials Index is losing 0.8%.

S&P 500 chart (daily)