Wall Street starts the day modestly lower

• Technology rebounds, helps Nasdaq limit its losses.
• Financials slip on rising German - Italy bond yield spread.
• US retail sales beat estimates on Thursday.

Major equity indexes in the United States started the day on a weak note on Thursday and as of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 102.2 points, or 0.4%, the S&P 500 was losing 11.22 points, or 0.42%, and the Nasdaq Composite was erasing 10 points, or 0.15%.

A 0.5% rebound witnessed in the S&P 500 Technology Index in the early trade helps the tech-heavy Nasdaq limit its losses while both the DJIA and S&P 500 stay under pressure amid a 1.7% drop seen in the S&P 500 Consumer Discretionary Index. Additionally, the S&P 500 Financials Index, which closed the day sharply lower yesterday, struggles to recover its losses as the widening Italy-German bond yield spread hurts the sentiment. 

Earlier today, the data released by the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that retails sales in October increased by 0.8% on a monthly basis to surpass the analysts' estimate for a 0.5% growth but failed to help the stock markets gain traction.