US open: Dow continues earnings streak ahead of earnings season
Wall Street trading began on a positive note on Tuesday as the start of earnings season provided a welcome distraction from recent trade war concerns.
As of 1520 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had gained 0.52% to 24,905.38, while the S&P 500 was 0.26% ahead 2,791.40 and the Nasdaq moved 0.05% firmer to 7,760.41.
In corporate news, PepsiCo gained 4.33% at the open after its second-quarter earnings beat analysts' expectations.
Meanwhile, Twenty-First Century Fox ticked ahead 0.44% following a Financial Times report that it was preparing to counter Comcast's latest offer for London-listed broadcaster Sky with a new and improved bid.
As earnings season gets into full swing, this week will see earnings from banking giants JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup on Friday.
Earlier, the latest survey from the National Federation of Independent Business revealed that activity among small firms dipped a touch in June. The NFIB business optimism index slipped to 107.2 from 107.8 in May, but remained historically high and was above the 106.9 economists had pencilled in.
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "The decline in the headline index mostly is due to small falls in the expectations components - economy, sales, and earnings - though they all remain quite high. Capex intentions dipped a point, and remain below last August's cycle high, despite the business tax cuts passed in December."
"The upward trend in earnings expectations, though, should lift capex plans to new highs over the next few months. The labour market numbers - released last week, ahead of the main report - mostly tightened further, with the jobs-hard-to-fill reading rising three points to 36, matching the all-time high recorded in November 2000."
"This unambiguously points to faster wage growth. Finally, selling price expectations dropped five points to 14, reversing the May spike. It's now consistent with little change in core inflation, net, over the next year, though it has recently under-predicted the official data."
Elsewhere on the data front, June's JOLTS job openings data revealed a solid number that should keep the Fed confident that the jobs market is in great shape.
The report revealed that 6.84m new jobs were created in the US during June, with hirings increasing to 5.75m from 5.42m and layoffs dipping to 1.1% from the 1.2% figure a month earlier.