US stocks ease a bit after opening in record territory

The bullish run-up in US equity markets showed little signs of exhaustion, with all the three major indices continuing with a string of records even on Thursday.

During the opening hour of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added over 80-points to 26,330 and the initial up-move was supported by better-than-expected quarterly results by a coupled of blue-chip companies - Caterpillar and 3M. Meanwhile, the broader S&P 500 Index and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index held treaded water near yesterday's closing levels. 

Robust quarterly earnings reports and incoming economic data remained supportive of the buoyant investors' sentiment, with all the major indices on track for a fourth consecutive week of gains.

The bullish sentiment was further supported by the recent slump in the US Dollar, this time led by some hawkish comments by the ECB President Mario Draghi and which is expected to boost profits for the US multinationals that have a significant portion of their sales overseas.

The markets, however, quickly reversed early gains amid near-term overstretched technical conditions, which now seemed to have prompted some profit-taking.