Wall Street opens sharply higher boosted by financials

Major equity indexes in the U.S. started the day with decisive gains on Friday as investors are cheering strong data from China and the upbeat tone surrounding the Q1 earning results so far. At the moment, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 1% on the day while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are adding 0.7% and 0.3%, respectively. Reflecting the risk-on atmosphere, the CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, is down 3.6% on the day.

Ahead of the opening bell, JP Morgan announced first-quarter revenue of $29.85 billion to beat the analysts' estimate of $28.36 billion. Similarly, PNC Financial's Q1 revenue came in at $4.29 billion vs $4.27 billion expected. On the other hand, Wells Fargo reported $21.6 billion to meet experts' forecast of $21.9 billion but the EPS at $1.2 surpassed the market expectation of $1.09. 

Supported by the strong earnings results and rising Treasury bond yields, the S&P 500 Financials Index is rising 2.25% at the time of press. Among the 11 S&P 500 major sectors, Materials, Communication Services, Energy, and Industrials are all up around 1% in the early trade.