US stocks rally on optimism over US-China trade talks/upbeat earnings

Major US equity indices opened higher on Thursday and recovered the previous session’s entire steep decline, supported by optimism over the US-China trade talks and strong corporate earnings.

In what could be seen as some positive trade-related development, China's commerce ministry said that it would send a delegation to the US and resume trade talks later this month. The news eased worries of a full-blown trade war between the world's two largest economies, which has roiled financial markets since early March. 

This coupled with easing concerns about an economic crisis in Turkey provided an additional boost to investors' appetite for perceived riskier assets - like equities. Meanwhile, better-than-expected results from Walmart and Cisco - two major constituents of the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), remained supportive of the positive sentiment during early trade. 

On the economic data front, the disappointing release of housing starts and Philly Fed manufacturing index were partly offset by an unexpected decline in the initial weekly jobless claims and did little to dampen the mood. 

At the time of writing this report, the DJIA rallied over 300-points to 25,470 and the broader S&P 500 Index was up around 18-points to 2,837. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index climbed nearly 45-points and jumped back above the 7,800 round figure mark.