Stocks climbed as confidence returned to markets, with investors shaking off concern about the impacts of higher Treasury yields.

In a broad-based rally, the S&P 500 notched its biggest advance in almost nine months, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 3 per cent while the Russell 2000 of small caps outperformed. GameStop Corp. added to last week’s surge of over 150 per cent, with retail investors promoting the stock on social-media platforms such as Reddit and StockTwits.

Longer-dated Treasuries resumed their selloff even as intermediate maturities found support, with traders priming themselves for how Federal Reserve officials slated to speak this week might respond to the recent tumult. Investors piled back into risk assets as stocks rebounded following a rout that was triggered by concern that massive stimulus as well as progress in battling the coronavirus have left some areas of the economy at risk of possibly overheating. The S&P 500 extended a rally from its March 2020 lows to about 75 per cent.

“Equity investors are still looking at the rise in rates mostly as ‘a good thing’ and not yet as a threat, notwithstanding some shaking of the tree in high multiple stocks and other parts of the market last week,” wrote Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. “The benefits of the vaccines versus the challenge of higher rates will be the theme this year.”

Bitcoin rallied after a volatile weekend session, riding a broad resurgence in risk assets and a bullish report from Citigroup Inc. The bank’s strategists laid out a case for the digital asset to play a bigger role in the global financial system, saying the cryptocurrency could become “the currency of choice for international trade” in the years ahead.

These are some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

The S&P 500 Index surged 2.4 per cent as of 4 p.m. New York time.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 1.8 per cent.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 1.8 per cent.
The MSCI Emerging Market Index rose 1.7 per cent.

Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.1 per cent.
The euro declined 0.2 per cent to US$1.2045.
The Japanese yen depreciated 0.2 per cent to 106.81 per dollar.

Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed three basis points to 1.44 per cent.
Germany’s 10-year yield sank seven basis points to -0.33 per cent.
Britain’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 0.759 per cent.

Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude declined 1.8 per cent to US$60.38 a barrel.
Gold fell 0.6 per cent to US$1,723.83 an ounce.
Silver slipped 0.7 per cent to US$26.48 per ounce.