US open: Stocks go green amidst a slew of data releases

US stocks opened higher on Tuesday as investors thumbed over a slew of data releases.

At 1440, GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.83% at 25,728.86, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both moved 0.85% firmer at 2,822.25 and 7,702.66, respectively.

The Dow opened 212 points higher after the rebound in the Nikkei 225 overnight, with investors weighing up what bond markets were indicating about the overall global economic outlook.

In corporate news, Apple shares were 1.40% higher in early trade after the tech giant's press event on Monday.

Goldman Sachs said the services unveiled were materially different to what it was expecting. The Apple TV+ service which it expected to be available now was only previewed for autumn availability, with no pricing information.

Meanwhile, an Apple credit card offer was announced for summer availability with attractive spending tracking features but GS said its calculations imply little short-term earnings impact for Apple.

Elsewhere, biotechnology group Alderya Therapeutics saw its shares rocket 52.66% as it said a phase 3 trial of its allergic conjunctivitis treatment met both primary and secondary endpoints.

Bed Bath & Beyond shares surged 27.18% following a report that activist investors are launching a fight to replace the entire board of directors.

On the data front, US housing starts declined more than expected in February, according to figures released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday.

Housing starts fell 8.7% to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 1.162m from a revised January rate of 1.273m. Analysts had been expecting a level of 1.213m. On the year, housing starts were 9.9% lower.

Meanwhile, building permits fell 1.6% from the revised January rate to 1.296m and were down 2% from February 2018.

Elsewhere, US house price growth came in a little weaker than expected in January, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index.

The 20-city index was up 3.6% year-on-year, slowing down from 4.1% growth the month before, missing expectations for a 4% increase and marking the slowest growth in more than six years.

David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, pointed out that the last time the NSA index covering all nine US census divisions advanced this slowly was April 2015.

"In 16 of the 20 cities tracked, price gains were smaller in January 2019 than in January 2018. Only Phoenix saw any appreciable acceleration," he said. "Some cities where prices surged in 2017-2018 now face much smaller increases: in Seattle, annual price gains dropped from 12.8% to 4.1% from January 2018 to January 2019. San Francisco saw annual price increases shrink from 10.2% to 1.8% over the same time period."

However, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index for March dropped sharply from the month before, by 7.3 points to 124.1.