US stocks climb as Tesla leads strong earnings news with Fed chief Powell due to speak

• US stocks climbed Thursday with the Nasdaq leading the rally amid strong earnings reports.
• Tesla stock jumped after its first-quarter results smashed Wall Street forecasts.

US stocks climbed Thursday as the latest batch of quarterly earnings reports cheered investors, while Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to speak this afternoon.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped more than 1.7% to lead the market rally after Tesla crushed first-quarter earnings estimates despite supply-chain snags. CEO Elon Musk also promised a robotaxi within two years and is set to receive stock options worth $23 billion after Tesla reached three milestones. Musk can exercise the options, but he won't be able to sell the resulting shares for five years.

Here's where US indexes stood as the market opened 9:30 a.m. on Thursday:

• S&P 500: 4,507.75, up 1.08%

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 35,464.30, up 0.86% (303.51 points)

• Nasdaq Composite: 13,684.41, up 1.72%

Netflix's earlier earnings miss and downbeat outlook, however, resulted in billionaire investor Bill Ackman losing around $400 million as he dumped his entire stake in the streaming platform.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs called out Morgan Stanley's block trading to the Hong Kong securities regulator, highlighting an "informal" discussion about share price drops in several locally listed companies, the Financial Times reported.

Russia's second largest bank, VTB, is sliding toward default after paying rubles on dollar bonds amid sanctions.

Oil climbed, with West Texas Intermediate up 1.2% to $103.42 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.19% to $108.15 a barrel.

Gold slipped 0.28% to $1,950.80 per ounce. The 10-year yield jumped 3.3 basis points to 2.87%.

Bitcoin rose 3.67% to $42.709.11.