U.S. stocks rise on upbeat economic data; Dow Jones up 0.53%

Investing.com - U.S. stocks opened higher on Tuesday, after the release of upbeat U.S. economic reports, while investors eyed more U.S. data to come later in the day.

During early U.S. trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.53%, the S&P 500 index advanced 0.50%, while the Nasdaq Composite index gained 0.56%.

The Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller composite 20 house price index rose to an annualized rate of 8.1% in January, from 6.8% the previous month, beating expectations for a rise to 7.9%.

The report came after the Census Bureau said that U.S. core durable goods orders fell 0.5% in February, disappointing expectations for a 0.5% rise, after a 2.9% increase the previous month.

However, durable goods orders, including transportation items, rose 5.7% last month, more than the expected 3.8% increase, following a 3.8% decline in January.

Meanwhile, investors remained cautious after the head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said on Monday that the rescue program agreed for Cyprus represents a new model for resolving euro zone banking problems and other countries may have to restructure their banking sectors.

Dell rose 0.28%, following reports Blackstone Group and billionaire Carl Icahn are offering to buy the tech company without retaining Michael Dell as CEO.

In the same sector, Intel was said to be making progress in talks with Time Warner, NBC Universal and Viacom to obtain TV shows and films for a first-of-its kind online pay-TV service, sending the company's shares up 0.76%.

Among Internet-related stocks, Yahoo shares climbed 0.46% as the company was reportedly preparing to pay about USD30 million to buy Summly, a mobile startup run by a 17-year-old. Summly is a mobile application that summarizes news articles for small-screen devices.

Elsewhere, Boeing jumped 1.26% after the aircraft manufacturer said it was planning a final 787 test flight in the coming days, after taking the grounded Dreamliner aloft on Monday to evaluate fixes to lithium-ion batteries that overheated on two aircraft earlier this year.

Financial stocks added to gains, with shares in Bank of America gaining 0.48% and JP Morgan advancing 0.45%, while Citigroup and Goldman Sachs rallied 0.72% and 0.95% respectively.

Separately, Goldman Sachs and Berkshire Hathaway amended the warrants Berkshire holds as part of the lifeline it gave Goldman during the financial crisis.

Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were mixed to higher. The EURO STOXX 50 dipped 0.03%, France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.75%, Germany's DAX added 0.29%, while Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.24%.

During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.27%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index dropped 0.6%.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to release a government report new home sales as well as data on consumer confidence.