Strong reports from GM, Delta lift US stocks

New York - Wall Street stocks rose early on Wednesday following a bullish December auto sales report from General Motors and a solid performance report from Delta that lifted airlines.

GM surged 4.3% after reporting that its December sales rose 10% from the year-ago level as it projected the closely-watched, seasonally-adjusted cars sales rate of 18.2 million vehicles, well above expectations.

Delta Air Lines shares gained 1.9% as it met or exceeded expectations for several key benchmarks in December. Revenues dipped 2.5 to 3.0%, a smaller decline than the three to five percent drop previously projected.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 19 924.48, up 0.2%.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 2 266.79 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.5% to 5 456.11.

Analysts described investor sentiment as upbeat after US stocks gained on the first day of 2017 trade, a notable improvement on 2016, when stocks tumbled for most of January.

Investors are eyeing the afternoon release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's December monetary policy meeting at which the US central bank raised interest rates. The minutes could shed light on when to expect the next rate hike.

Tesla Motors rose 1.8% as it reported that production jumped 64% last year compared with 2015, although it missed its delivery target for the final three months of 2016.