US stocks jump to multi-week highs, on track to post strong weekly gains

Major US equity indices opened higher and jumped to the highest level in about three weeks during the opening hour of trade on Friday.

Concerns over trade-war and geopolitical risks seemed to have taken a backseat; with upbeat earnings reports from a trio of big banks supported the prevailing buying sentiment in the market.

The recently announced tax cuts are expected to help corporate to post the biggest quarterly profit growth in seven years. With expectations already running high, disappointing earnings growth might revive valuations concerns and trigger a fresh bout of volatility.

Despite the official kick start of the earnings season, political issues will remain in limelight and should continue influencing investors' appetite for riskier assets - like equities. 

Nevertheless, all the three major indices, so far, held in positive territory for the sixth session in the previous eight and are set to post strong weekly gains anywhere in excess of 2.0% to over 3.0%.