Wall Street Rises at Open as Investors Remain on Edge Over Virus Fears

By Noreen Burke

Investing.com - Wall Street opened higher on Tuesday, as markets attempted to bounce back a day after the S&P 500 and the Dow posted their sharpest daily declines in two years on worries over the global economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

The Dow rose 154 points, or 0.55% by 9:35 AM ET (14:35 GMT) and the S&P 500 was up 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.7%.

The Dow shed more than 1,000 points by the close on Monday, its third largest points decline ever amid a global stock selloff spurred by fears over the global economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

The S&P 500 ended Monday down 3.3%, also the worst drop in two years. With Monday’s declines, the S&P 500 and the Dow both wiped out their gains for 2020 so far.

Stocks were boosted upbeat retail earnings. Shares of Dow-member Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) rose 2.5% after the home improvement chain beat quarterly sales and profit estimates.

Another upbeat report in the retail space was from department store operator Macy’s (NYSE:M), which jumped more than 2.6% after a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly same-store sales.

On the economic calendar, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence data for February, is scheduled for 10:00 AM ET.

--Reuters contributed to this report

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