US stocks open at records, Dow jumps above 26K

US equity markets witnessed a strong opening on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surging over 200-points to hit fresh records beyond the 26K mark.

Along with the blue-chip index, the other two major indices - S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, also extended their winning streak and continued with their recent string of records. During the opening hour of trade, all the three major indices were trading with gains of anywhere between 0.70%-1.0%.

The fourth-quarter earnings season kicks into high gear and hopes for strong quarterly earnings continued bolstering investors' optimism since the start of 2018. This coupled with a steep cut in corporate taxes and expectations over a solid global economic growth remained supportive of the strong bullish run-up in equity markets.

On the economic data front, the Empire State Manufacturing Index slipped to 17.7 in January, down from an upwardly revised 19.6 in December, but did little to dampen the prevalent strong bullish sentiment.