US open: Stocks attempt rebound following worst session of the year

Wall Street stocks traded higher at the bell on Tuesday as major indices attempted to recover from their worst day of 2019 in the previous session.

As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.41% at 25,823.28, while the S&P 500 was ahead 0.57% at 2,861.06 and the Nasdaq Composite was trading 0.85% firmer at 7,791.84.

The Dow opened 105.54 points higher after US stocks finished well in the red on Monday, following on from heavy losses seen across Asian indices overnight.

Monday's sell-off began last week when Donald Trump surprised everyone with a round of new tariffs on Chinese goods. Markets took an even more negative turn when, come Monday, Chinese authorities allowed the yuan to break to its lowest level against the US dollar in over a decade.

In response, the US Treasury Department designated China a currency manipulator and Trump took to Twitter to voice his disgust at both the move and his own central bank.

"China dropped the price of their currency to an almost a historic low. It's called 'currency manipulation'. Are you listening Federal Reserve? This is a major violation which will greatly weaken China over time!," he said.

However, stocks began to stage a rebound on Tuesday after China's central bank made it clear that it wanted its currency to trade at a higher-than-expected level to the US dollar, easing tensions about the nation using its currency as a weapon in the trade war.

US firm's dependent on China saw shares rise in early trading, with the likes of Apple, Caterpillar and Micron all trading higher.

Elsewhere on the corporate front, Ford picked up 2.1% at the bell after analysts at Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock, while Bausch Health was down 4.76% despite raising its full-year estimates following a strong second-quarter earnings update.

Disney and Wynn Resorts were set to update investors on their last quarter after the closing bell.

On the data calendar for Tuesday, US labour market conditions appeared to remain relatively stable in June with the number of new posts being offered by companies and Americans' willingness to voluntarily take the risk of changing jobs both little changed from the month before.

According to the results of the Department of Labor's JOLTS job market survey for June, the number of job openings declined by 36,000 versus the month before to 7.348m, while the number of so-called 'quits', or voluntary separations, slipped by 45,000 to 3.422m.

At 2.3%, the quits rate was unchanged from both its level during the month before and versus one year ago.