Wall Street struggles to build on Tuesday's gains, opens in the red

Major equity indexes in the U.S. started the day in the negative territory on Wednesday as investors seem to be opting out to stay on the sidelines while waiting for the FOMC to publish the minutes of the May meeting later in the session. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.32% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were losing 0.35% and 0.3%, respectively.

Earlier today, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said that currently there were no plans to travel to Beijing for the next round of trade talks but noted that it was possible to give exemptions to companies on the hiked tariffs on Chinese imports. On the other hand, China's senior diplomat Wang Yi reiterated that China would "fight to the end" if the U.S. were to use extreme measures, suggesting that the trade dispute is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index and the Consumer Discretionary Index both lose around 0.6% while the defensive Real Estate and Utilities post small gains in the early trade.