US stocks post strong gains during the opening hour of trade

Major US equity indices staged a solid rebound and rallied hard during the opening hour of trade on Friday.

The up-move comes after two-days of brutal sell-off, triggered by concerns over the recent upsurge in the US Treasury bond yields and the impact it could have on equity prices. 

Market participants now look forward to the unofficial start to third-quarter earnings season on Friday, with expectations for strong corporate results supportive of the early strong positive momentum. Analysts, however, now seemed concerned over the sustainability of robust earnings growth, which could be primarily attributed to the tax cuts in 2017. 

Hence, the view that the latest quarterly reports might represent peak earnings might turn out to be one of the key factors hindering resumption of the strong bullish momentum.

At the time of writing this report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by around 340-points to 25387 and the broader S&P 500 Index climbed over 40-points to 2,771. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rallied nearly 160-points and inched back closer to the 7,500 psychological mark.

Despite strong gains, all the three major indices remain on track for their biggest weekly decline since March, with the Dow and the S&P to post their third straight weekly loss or over 4%.