Wall Street opens higher on strong earnings, outlook

US stock indices opened higher on Tuesday with S&P 500 nearing a record high on the back of gains in the tech sector led by Microsoft, Facebook, and Alphabet, amid a strong earnings season that outweighed concerns over the US-China tariff row. 

An index tracking US job openings stayed the same in June at 6.64 million, missing expectations of 6.74 million. 

Last Friday saw the release of the US payrolls report, which showed the unemployment rate fell to 3.9% as expected from 4.0% in June, while average hourly earnings rose 0.3% as expected, up from 0.1% in June. 

The economy added 157 thousand jobs last month, down from 248 thousand in June, and missing estimates of 191K.

Stock Performance 

As of 02:06 GMT, Standard and Poor's 500 rose 0.61%, or 10.30 points to 2,860.70, while Dow Jones climbed 0.61%, or 156.15 points to 25,658.33. 

Tech-heavy NASDAQ added 0.32%, or 25.34 points to 7,885.02. 

US-China Trade Dispute Persists 

Last week, China floated new tariffs on $60 billion worth of US products, with the date of implementation depending on US actions according to the Chinese trade ministry, which comes after China accused the US of "blackmail" amid tense trade negotiations between the two sides. 

US President Donald Trump tweeted last week that his strategy with tariffs is "working far better than anyone ever anticipated”, claiming it would make the US economy “much richer than it is today”, while causing massive losses to China's stock market. 

In the same thread, US trade Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday that the tariffs threatened on Chinese products wouldn't be "cataclysmic", as a 25% tax on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports would amount to barely 1% of China's GDP.