Wall Street recovers some of last week’s drop, silver climbs

02-02-2021 08:28 HKT

Stocks notched broad gains on Wall Street Monday, clawing back some of their losses following the market’s worst weekly loss since October.

The S&P 500 climbed by 1.6 percent. The benchmark index was coming off a 3.3 percent slide last week, when volatility increased as online traders hoping to inflict damage on hedge funds fueled a frenzy in GameStop and a few other stocks.

Investors large and small continued to focus those stocks Monday, and GameStop slumped by 30.8 percent to US$225 a share, the latest rocky ride for the stock, which ended last year at about US$18.

Meanwhile, the price of silver jumped at one point to its highest level in eight years. Analysts said the precious metal became another target for online investors seeking to go up against big Wall Street players.

Silver futures climbed by 8 percent to at US$29.06 an ounce, marking the largest one-day pop in silver on NYMEX since at least 2013. The contracts traded 11 percent higher at US$30.35 an ounce earlier in the day, the highest level since February 15, 2013.

Silver for March delivery climbed US$2.50, or 9 percent, to settle at US$29.42 an ounce. Some analysts called the price jump the latest assault by the smaller investors who sent GameStop soaring recently. But many of those same traders instead called it a trap set by hedge funds to divert their attention away from GameStop, as the saga captivating Wall Street gets even more dramatic.

A measure of fear in the market, the VIX, fell Monday, suggesting some of last week’s market jitters were easing, said Pauline Bell, analyst at CFRA Research.

“Today the market is sensing that the heightened volatility that we saw over the last week is reverting to a more settled type of volume,” Bell said. “The market is sensing the return to normalcy.”

The S&P 500 gained by 59.62 points at 3,773.86. The Dow Jones Industrial Average won 229.29 points, or 0.8 percent, at 30,211.91. The Nasdaq composite climbed by 332.70 points, or 2.5 percent, at 13,403.39.-AP/CNBC