Wall Street opens deep in red amid flight-to-safety

Major equity indexes in the U.S. opened sharply lower as investors move away from risk-sensitive assets on Thursday. The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, is up more than 5% in the early trade to reflect the souring market sentiment. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is losing 0.73% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are down 0.8% and 1.15%, respectively.

Earlier today, both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England announced that they cut their growth forecasts for 2019 to revive concerns over the slowdown in the global economy. Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, communications services and technology are both losing more than 1% pressured by the disappointing earnings guidance from Twitter, whose shares are down nearly 10% in the early trade. On the other hand, defensive sectors such as utilities and real estate are suffering relatively smaller losses.