US stocks open higher, trying to recover from losses

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Major US stock indexes opened higher Tuesday, trying to recover from the previous day's losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 400 points, or 1.15%, to 35,331 at 9.39 a.m. EDT, after the blue-chip index fell 433 points, or 1.23%, on Monday.

The S&P 500 was up 46 points, or 1.01%, to 4,613 at the time, after declining 52 points, or 1.14%, during the previous session.

The Nasdaq jumped 147 points, or 0.98%, to 15,120 after the tech-heavy index fell 188 points, or 1.24%, on Monday.

The losses came because of rising cases of the omicron coronavirus variant creating worries for investors.

Amid omicron fears, the VIX volatility index rose 6.5% to 22.97 on Monday, but the fear index was down 3.76% to 22.01 shortly after the opening bell Tuesday.

The dollar index was down 0.05% to 96.50, while the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes was flat at 1.450%.

Precious metals were on the rise with gold adding 0.22% to $1,794 per ounce and silver increasing 1.5% to $22.6.

Although crude prices took a dive Monday with the omicron variant wakening the global oil demand outlook, they were in recovery mode Tuesday. The price of Brent crude was trading at $72.88 per barrel with a 1.9% gain, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was at $70.21 -- a 2.3% increase.

After weeks of decline, the price of Bitcoin recovered 6.6% to $48,700, while some altcoins were up as much as 15%.

The crypto market's total value was at around $2.26 trillion with a 6.3% daily gain, according to data by digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.