Wall Street opens with moderate gains

Major equity indexes in the United States started the day modestly higher on Tuesday. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were adding 0.3% and 0.65%, respectively.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the consumer discretionary is gaining 0.9% on the day to lead the rally. On the other hand, the so-called defensive sectors, utilities and real estate, underperform in the early trade to reflect positive market sentiment. On the same note, the CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, is down 0.51% on the day.

Meanwhile, the IHS Markit just recently announced that the Services PMI edged down to 54.2 in January (final) from the previous estimate of 54.4 and came in line with the market expectation.