Wall Street wary of fiscal cliff US stocks opened lower, putting them on course for a fifth straight negative session, as the window for a fiscal cliff deal before year-end narrows with the passing hours. This has been the week when traders were forced to confront the possibility that $600bn of tax rises and federal spending cuts might actually start to kick in on January 1, hitting the pocketbooks of ordinary Americans and putting the economic recovery at risk. The equity market continues to gyrate with each new act in the political drama, but the creeping pessimism - even cynicism - pushed the S&P 500 down a further 0.7 per cent to 1,409 shortly after the New York open. The 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.6 per cent lower at 13,017, and the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.5 per cent to 2,972. Chris Krueger, senior policy analyst at Guggenheim Securities, warned his clients not to expect much from a meeting on Friday afternoon between Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama at the White House. "This meeting is more about optics than anything and likely represents the last chance for a deal," he said. The undercard for the day is the continued blame game that reached new highs yesterday with the Congressional leaders throwing verbal haymakers at one another throughout the day. Energy, materials and consumer discretionary stocks were the weakest out of the gate, amid concern that a stumble in the US economy could hit global growth and domestic consumer spending. In the energy sector, which was down more than 1 per cent, the notable casualties were Valero Energy, down 2 per cent at $33.16, and Anadarko Petroleum, off 2 per cent at $72.33. Markets, however, are hardly in crisis mode, even with the possibility that the January 1 deadline will not be met. The Vix index, which measures volatility in the options market, rose above 20 to its highest level in five months, but that is still below half the level it reached in August 2011 when politicians threatened to default on US government debt in the last budget showdown. The US government will not hit its debt ceiling again until around the end of February, giving potentially two more months of breathing room for negotiations. A trading update from United Continental sent the airline's stock up 0.1 per cent to $23.21 against the falling market. It said passenger loads on domestic and international flights were both up, though superstorm Sandy had hurt capacity. Hewlett-Packard, the computer maker, was the worst performer in the Dow, off 2.1 per cent at $13.74 after it confirmed the Department of Justice was investigating its allegations of fraud against the former management of its Autonomy division.