US open: Stocks go green as investors digest a data buffet

Wall Street trading started off with some solid gains on Thursday as investors shrugged off the trade conflict between the US and China and thumbed through a slew of data releases.

At 1520 BST, the Dow Jones was up 0.79% to 26,614.72, while the S&P 500 had moved ahead 0.56% to 2,924.16 and the Nasdaq was trading 0.94% firmer at 8,024.90.

Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said: "Investors are continuing to monitor the main political stories, which have been an important driver of risk appetite for much of the year, but the latest tariffs didn't catch anyone off guard and so the impact has been marginal."

In corporate news, Darden Restaurants was up 2.21% in early trade after the Olive Garden parent's first-quarter earnings came in better than expected.

Software company Red Hat was 6.64% lower after it posted lower-than-expected second-quarter revenue late on Thursday and recreational vehicle maker Thor Industries tumbled 10.90% after the release of its quarterly earnings.

Comcast, 21st Century Fox and Walt Disney were all up less than 0.50% after the UK's takeover panel said it would begin an auction process for London-listed broadcaster Sky this weekend.

Facebook was up 1.66% and Twitter was ahead 1.36% despite the EU announcing the companies could face sanctions if they don't comply with European consumer rules by the end of the year.

On the macroeconomic calendar, US jobless claims moved lower still over the latest week, underlining the ongoing strength of the labour market.

According to the US Department of Labor, initial claims for the week ending on 20 September slipped by 3,000 to 201,000.

The four-week moving average meanwhile, which aims to smooth out the variations from one week to the next, fell by 2,250 to 205,750.

Elsewhere, factory sector activity in the US mid-Atlantic region bounced back sharply in September on the back of a big increase in firms' new orders, according to the results of a widely-followed survey.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's manufacturing sector index improved from August's reading of 11.9 to 22.9.

The consensus forecast was for a reading of 15.0.

Lastly, existing-home sales held steady month-on-month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.34m in August as housing starts began to fumble, the National Association of Realtors said.

Existing-home sales were 1.5% lower than a year ago.

The flat reading fell short of consensus expectations of a reading of 5.37m.