S&P 500 Index opens modestly lower as financial stocks suffer heavy losses

• Wall Street's main indexes opened in the negative territory on Monday.
• Financial stocks fall sharply following stock firesale of large US hedge fund.
• The S&P 500 Communication Services Index posts modest gains.

Major equity indexes in the US started the new week under modest bearish pressure following Friday's margin call of the large US-based hedge fund, Archegos Capital Management. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1% on the day at 33,069, the S&P 500 Index was losing 0.08% at 3,971 and the Nasdaq Composite was posting small losses at 12.984.

Credit Suisse and Nomura both warned investors of significant losses following the surprising stock firesale of Archegos Capital Management. Currently, the S&P 500 Financials Index is down 1.2%, reflecting the negative impact of this development on financial shares.

On the other hand, the Communication Services Index is up 0.4% as the best-performing major S&P 500 sector after the opening bell.

S&P 500 chart (daily)