Wall Street starts week slightly higher

Major equity indexes in the U.S. opened the first trading of the week marginally higher. Although the positive impact of last Friday's upbeat NFP report continues to be felt on the markets, falling crude oil prices weigh on the energy shares, limiting the gains for now.

While the financials continue to benefit from the employment report, which ramped up the expectations for the Fed to start shrinking its $4.2 trillion bond portfolio in September and making another 25 bps rate hike in December, energy shares suffer from the unabated selling pressure on crude oil. As of writing, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate was trading at $48.70, losing 1.85% on the day, pushing the S&P 500 energy index .SPSY 0.74% lower to 479.87. 

At the moment, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat at 22,093.12, the S&P 500 was up 2.75 points, or 0.1% percent, at 2,474.62, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was gaining 16.9 points, or 0.27%, at 6,368.47.

Key headlines of the day:

• US Dollar struggles for direction near 93.30, Fedspeak eyed
• How much damage will the US data do to the EUR and carry? – Deutsche Bank
• US: Solid labour market data - SocGen
• Fed headed towards balance sheet operations in September - BBH
• Fitch revises up 2017 and 2018 world GDP growth forecasts