US open: Stocks trade higher as traders return from Easter long weekend
Wall Street stocks opened higher on Tuesday as market participants waded through a number of corporate earnings.
As of 1520 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.91% at 34,725.72, while the S&P 500 was 1.0% firmer at 4,435.76 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.25% stronger at 13,499.18.
The Dow opened 314.03 points higher on Tuesday, easily erasing losses recorded in the final session ahead of the Easter long weekend.
In the corporate space, Johnson & Johnson posted some mixed quarterly earnings prior to the open, with earnings per share topping expectations despite revenues falling short. The pharma giant also downgraded earnings guidance for 2022.
Toymaker Hasbro reported weaker-than-expected quarterly profits, even as revenues came in bang in line with estimates, while aerospace giant Lockheed Martin reported earnings that beat expectations but sales that missed as Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine lifted defence outfits.
Halliburton also came in ahead of estimates with its quarterly earnings, reporting EPS of $0.35 as demand boomed amid the conflict in Eastern Europe.
Still to come, Spirit Airlines and Netflix will release their latest quarterly earnings reports after the close.
On the macro front, US housing starts unexpectedly edged 0.3% higher to a seasonally adjusted annualised rate of 1.793m in March - the highest since June 2006. March's reading from the Census Bureau, which beat market forecasts of 1.745m, came alongside an upwardly revised figure for February, which was raised to 1.788m from an initial of 1.769m.
Elsewhere, building permits increased 0.4% month-on-month to 1.873m, also above market expectations for a reading of 1.825m. Authorisations for buildings with five units or more surged 10.9% to 672,000, while those for single-family declined 4.8% to a rate of 1.14m.
Also in focus was news that the International Monetary Fund had cut its global growth projections for both 2022 and 2023 to 3.6%, stating that the economic hit from Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine will "propagate far and wide". The downward revision represented a 0.8 and 0.2 percentage point drop from its previous estimates, respectively.