US stocks have rallied strongly in opening trade, recovering some of their losses from a prior session marred by the deadly Boston explosions.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 96.60 (0.66 per cent) to 14,695.80.

The broad-based S&P 500 increased 10.37 (0.67 per cent) to 1,562.73, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 21.15 (0.66 per cent) to 3,237.64.

The rally partially reversed Monday’s losses, when the deadly explosions at the Boston Marathon pushed down a market that had already been in the red after a commodity sell-off in the face of weak Chinese and US economic data.

Fresh March data showed that US housing starts jumped 7.0 per cent from February and were up 46.7 per cent from a year ago, while consumer prices fell 0.2 per cent mainly due to a sharp drop in gasoline prices.

Solid earnings reports from Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson also propelled stocks higher.