The S&P 500 surged on Monday in its strongest one-day gain since June as bond markets calmed after a month-long selloff, while another COVID-19 vaccine getting U.S. approval and fiscal stimulus bolstered expectations of a swift economic recovery. Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp, Facebook Inc and Amazon.com Inc bounced back after a selloff last week in tech stocks. Apple rose over 5% and was the strongest contributor to the S&P 500's gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.95% to end at 31,535.51 points, while the S&P 500 gained 2.38% to 3,901.82. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 3.01% to 13,588.83.
European stocks ended higher after bond markets stabilized from a sharp selloff last week, with travel and leisure stocks leading gains on optimism over COVID-19 vaccination programmes and a large U.S. stimulus package. The pan-regional STOXX 600 index rose 1.8%, its best day since early November, after losing more than 2% last week. Travel and leisure stocks added more than 3%.Homebuilders such as Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments were the top gainers on the FTSE 100.
Maltese markets meanwhile edged higher, with the MSE Equity Total Return Index closing up 0.14 percent to 7,871.807 points. RS2 Software Plc posted the only gain with shares up 2.78 percent at €1.85 while PG Plc posted the only drop with shares down 2.45 percent at €1.99.
GameStop rally resumed
GameStop and other retail "darling stocks" mounted a late-day rally on Monday, with shares of the video game retailer climbing nearly 32% at one point on little apparent news. Shares of the videogame retailer, along with other stocks favored by retail investors congregating in online forums such as Reddit's popular WallStreetBets, have roared back in recent sessions after a wild ride in which they soared in late January and tumbled early last month.
At one point, GameStop, which closed at $120.40, reached a session peak of $133.99. Its low for the day was $99.97. Along with GameStop, which pared gains to close up 18.3%, cinema chain AMC Entertainment finished up 14.6% and headphone maker Koss added 13.4%.More than 48 million shares in GameStop changed hands, with volume surpassing the 10-day moving average. So far the stock is up 539% year-to-dated. However, it was still below its Jan.28 peak of $483.
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