US open: Stocks flat as big tech and reopening plays remain in focus

Wall Street stocks were mostly flat after the open on Tuesday as big tech and stocks tied to an economic reopening both trading higher shortly after the bell.

As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.03% at 34,403.68, while the S&P 500 was flat at 4,197.19 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.12% stronger at 13,677.80.

The Dow opened 9.70 points higher on Tuesday, tacking modest gains onto yesterday's advance.

In focus early in the session, shares in the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Alphabet were all trading slightly higher, as were airlines, cruise lines and Boeing.

Shares in newly-floated cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase were also in the green after bitcoin bounced back to around $38,000 early on Tuesday after falling below $32,000 on Sunday.

On the macro front, house price gains in the US accelerated further at the start of the year, fresh government data revealed.

According to the Federal Housing Financing Agency, house prices rose at a year-on-year rate of 12.6% over the first three months of 2021. That was up from 12.3% in February and more than twice the rate observed over the same period one year ago. In comparison to the month before, house prices jumped at a month-on-month pace of 1.4%.

Elsewhere, sales of new US homes declined more than forecast in April as higher prices continued to weigh on demand, with purchases of new single-family homes falling 5.9% to an annualised pace of 863,000 following a downwardly revised print of 917,000 for March and expectations for a reading of 950,000.

Lastly, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index held steady in May, following a gain in April, with the index now standing at 117.2, down only marginally from the 117.5 print seen a month earlier.

In terms of earnings, AutoZone smashed quarterly earnings expectations, while Toll Brothers and Urban Outfitters were both slated report earnings throughout the course of the day.