US open: Dow records solid gains at the bell, reverses Tuesday's selloff
US stocks opened higher on Wednesday, with major indices clawing back some most of the losses recorded in the previous session.
As of 1535 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.61% at 24,596.11, while the S&P 500 was 1.74% firmer at 2,973.78 and the Nasdaq Composite started out the session 1.86% stronger at 9,355.66.
The Dow Jones opened 389.25 points higher on Wednesday, all but reversing its 390 point drop in the previous session that came after a report raised concerns about trial results for Moderna's potential Covid-19 vaccine
As far as Wednesday was concerned, strong results from home improvement retailer Lowe's despite ongoing coronavirus lockdowns helped buoy sentiment at the bell after the group's first-quarter same-store sales increased 11.2% year-on-year.
Department store giant Target also pointed to a 10.8% increase in same-store sales on the back of some improved digital sales.
In terms of US-Sino relations, Markets seemed to shrug a heightened level of rhetoric from Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Trump tweeted: "Some wacko in China just released a statement blaming everybody other than China for the Virus which has now killed hundreds of thousands of people. Please explain to this dope that it was the 'incompetence of China', and nothing else, that did this mass Worldwide killing!"
Also still in focus were comments from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin in front to the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.
Mnuchin said the Treasury and the Federal Reserve were both "fully prepared to take losses" on the remaining capital from the Covid-19 bailout programmes.
He added that he was prepared to distribute the entire $500bn allocated to help struggling businesses impacted by the pandemic, while Powell reiterated the Fed's commitment to efforts aimed at keeping markets functioning and getting cash to Americans that needed it most during the crisis.
Market participants were also continuing to monitor how the reopening of several US states was progressing, with Connecticut allowing consumers to dine in at restaurants, while New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the outbreak in the Empire State was right back to where it started.
On the macro front, mortgage applications to purchase a home rose 6% week-on-week in the US, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted index.
Purchase volume was just 1.5% lower than twelve months earlier, a sharp recovery from just six weeks ago when purchase volume was down 35% year-on-year.
Still to come, minutes from the Fed's latest Federal Open Markets Committee meeting will be published at 1900 BST.