Wall Street starts second quarter on the back foot, S&P 500 erases nearly 4%

• Flight to safety dominates financial markets on Wednesday.
• Fİnancial shares suffer heavy losses amid plummeting Treasury bond yields.

Wall Street's main indexes opened sharply lower on the first day of the second quarter as investors remain focused on the surging number of coronavirus infections and fatalities worldwide. 

Flight to safety

As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.6% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were erasing 3.8% and 2.62%, respectively. Reflecting the risk-off atmosphere, the CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, is up 10.25% in the early trade.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Real Estate Index is erasing 6% as the worst performer. Moreover, the Financials Index is down 5% on the day pressured by a more-than-10% decline in the 10-year US Treasury bond yield.