U.S. stocks open higher on robust jobs data

U.S. stocks opened higher on Tuesday, extending a recent rally, as Wall Street still cheered the much-better-than-expected June nonfarm report.

With no major economic data due Tuesday, investors kept sifting the country's nonfarm report released last Friday.

According to the report, U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 287,000 in June, well above market consensus of 175,000, pushing the unemployment rate to 4.9 percent.

Analysts believed that the nonfarm report mollified concerns of an economic slowdown in the United States, as May's payroll rose only by 38,000 and notched the fewest monthly job gains in almost six years.

Meanwhile, traders kept a close eye on the jobs report for more implications on the U.S. Federal Reserve's next rate hike in a post-Brexit environment.

Fed policymakers decided in June that it was prudent to wait for more data and the Brexit vote result before raising rates, according to the minutes of the Fed's June policy meeting released earlier this week.

"Esther George (the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City) has gone back to pressing for a summer rate hike, but the rest of the FOMC is likely to conclude it is too soon to hike this month, and likely will still be too soon in September," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note on Tuesday.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 85.98 points, or 0.47 percent, to 18,312.91. The S&P 500 rose 13.31 points, or 0.62 percent, to 2,150.47. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 35.15 points, or 0.70 percent, to 5,023.79.

U.S. stocks extended gains Monday, with the S&P 500 setting its new closing record, as investors continued to digest the June nonfarm report. Endi