US stocks trade mixed - Dow rallies, Nasdaq underperforms

Major US equity indices witnessed a mixed opening on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones building on the previous session's strong rally and moving within striking distance of all-time highs.

Investors turned the focus away from the escalating trade tensions between the world's two largest economies and shrugged off the US President Donald Trump's warning to levy another $267 billion in duties on China. 

The move comes on top of the new tariffs on about $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, which was subsequently followed by China's retaliatory tariffs of 5% to 10% on $60 billion of US products. 

A full-blown US-China trade war is expected to dent global economic growth, though market participants choose to rather focus on signs of improving US economic fundamentals and strong growth in corporate earnings.

Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index underperformed during the opening hour of trade, losing over 6-points to 7,950, and might now become a headwind for any further intraday up-move, at least for the time being.

At the time of writing this report, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied by nearly 120-points to 26,368 and the broader S&P 500 Index climbed around 3-points to 2,907.