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New York - Wall Street stocks opened higher Tuesday after a positive start to the quarterly earnings season and easing eurozone debt fears after Portugal denied it needed a bailout.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 52.48 points (0.45%) to 11 690.16 in opening trades.
The broad-market S&P 500 index rose 5.46 points (0.43%) to 1 275.21 and the tech-rich Nasdaq climbed 10.94 points (0.40%) to 2 718.74.
Aluminum giant Alcoa kicked off earnings season after the market closed Monday with strong fourth-quarter earnings.
The Dow component reported a swing into profit of $258m, from a loss of $277m a year earlier, in results that beat expectations.
Market sentiment also gained support after Japan said it would buy European bonds to help finance a bailout for crisis-hit Ireland, helping to tamp down concerns a notch about debt-laden Portugal.
"With Japan pledging to buy European debt, and Alcoa Inc. posting a solid quarterly earnings report, tensions on Wall Street have eased considerably," said Joseph Hargett at Schaeffer's Investment Research.
Investors appeared to take heart from Monday's Wall Street resilience to the Europe's debt woes. The major indices closed mixed, the Dow falling for the third straight day but paring earlier losses.
The Dow fell 0.32% and the S&P 500 dipped 0.14%, while the Nasdaq clawed out a 0.17% gain.
