July 29 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow indexes rose on Thursday as a slate of strong corporate earnings reports and data showing a pickup in U.S. economic growth reinforced optimism around a steady post-pandemic recovery. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 55.1 points, or 0.16%, at the open to 34985.99. The S&P 500 rose 2.9 points, or 0.07%, at the open to 4403.59, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 8.6 points, or 0.06%, to 14771.168 at the opening bell. (Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.