Wall Street opens sharply lower driven by oil collapse

• Financial and energy shares suffer heavy losses on Tuesday.
• CBOE Volatility Index climbs more than 8% on risk-aversion.

Major equity indexes in the US opened with large losses on Tuesday as collapsing oil prices and dismal first-quarter earnings figures and financial outlooks from US corporations continue to weigh on market sentiment. Reflecting the intense flight-to-safety, the CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, is up more than 8% in the early trade.

Energy shares lead losers

As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 463 points, or 2%, on the day at 23,196.50 points while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were both losing 1.7%. 

The S&P 500 Energy Index is falling more than 2% on Tuesday as the worst-performing major sector. In the meantime, the Financials Index is losing 1.85% pressured by a 9% drop in the 10-year US Treasury bond yield.

Earlier in the day, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced that Republicans and Democrats had agreed on a fourth coronavirus spending bill to support small businesses but failed to help the market sentiment recover.