US stocks bounce after prior session's retreat

Wall Street stocks climbed early Tuesday, shrugging off the prior session's decline as the market searches for direction ahead of quarterly earnings season.

After a trove of new equities market records in recent weeks, stocks pulled back on Monday in a move seen as a "consolidation" from the earlier advance.

But markets were back in positive territory on Tuesday morning.

About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1 percent at 39,338.18.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent to 5,230.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.4 percent to 16,453.78.

Markets are in a lull period after last week's Federal Reserve meeting, as well as ahead of earnings season and major economic reports in the coming weeks.

This is also a holiday-shortened week, with markets closed for Good Friday at the end of the week.