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New York - US stocks opened higher Friday as a trio of leading banks beat analyst third quarter earnings forecasts despite the tough low interest rate environment.
The three - Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup - all saw net profits fall as low rates pared lending margins, but they beat forecasts from analysts, driving their shares higher in early trade.
About 30 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7% to 18 229.53.
The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.6% at 2 146.22, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.7% to 5 251.99.
Citigroup shares led the three reporting banks with a 2.5% gain, Wells Fargo rose 0.5% and JPMorgan 1.3%.
Other banks yet to report for the quarter rode the wave higher: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley both jumped more than 3% while Bank of America rose 2.2%.
Also helping the market were fresh economic indicators pointing to a resilient economy; both retail sales and producer prices picked up in September.
Underpinning that was a jump in key consumer and producer price indexes in China, with the producer price index showing the first year-on-year gain in almost five years.
Among other stocks, two partially China plays. Intel gained 1.6% and Caterpillar 1.4%.
Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices surged 7.5%, helped by a trading upgrade from Credit Suisse.
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