US stocks hit new record-highs on strong earnings and rising oil prices

After an extended weekend, the US stock markets resumed trading on Tuesday and witnessed a strong opening, with all the three major indices hitting new intraday record high levels. 

Investors cheered better-than-expected earnings report from top US retailers - Home Depot Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., while rising crude oil prices also contributed towards boosting investors' appetite for riskier assets - like equities. 

At the time of writing this report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up over 90-points to 20,715, while the broader S&P 500 Index gained around 10-points to 2,361. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index added nearly 25-points and rose to 5,862.

On economic data front, a slight disappointment from lower-than-expected flash US PMI prints did little to hinder the prevalent upbeat sentiment. Both the services and the manufacturing gauges held comfortably above 50 mark, but pointed to a slowing pace of growth during February.