S&P 500 opens deep in red for third straight day

• Wall Street's main indexes are posting sharp losses.
• All major sectors of S&P 500 trade in the negative territory.
• US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says it will be hard to reach a deal on COVID aid. 

Major equity indexes in the US opened sharply lower on Thursday as safe-haven flows continue to dominate financial markets. Reflecting the risk-averse market environment, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), Wall Street's fear gauge, was up 8% on the day at 28.50.

As of writing, the S&P 500 Index was down 1% on the day at 3,453, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was losing 0.6% at 28,514 and the Nasdaq Composite was falling 1.05% at 11,859.

During an interview with CNBC earlier in the day, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin repeated that it will not be easy to reach a deal on the coronavirus relief aid ahead of the election.

All 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 trade in the negative territory after the opening bell and with the Energy Index is leading the decliners with a loss of 2.5%.

S&P 500 chart (daily)