WALL STREET RECOVERS, SILVER CLIMBS

Stocks notched broad gains on Wall Street Monday, clawing back some of their losses following the market’s worst weekly loss since October, Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The S&P 500 rose 1.6%. The benchmark index was coming off a 3.3% slide last week, when volatility spiked 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 30.8% to $225 a share, the latest rocky ride for the stock, which ended last year at about $18.

The S&P 500 gained 59.62 points to 3,773.86. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 229.29 points, or 0.8%, to 30,211.91. The Nasdaq composite climbed 332.70 points, or 2.5%, to 13,403.39. Smaller companies also notched solid gains. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks picked up 52.52 points, or 2.5%, to 2,126.16.

Meanwhile, the price of silver jumped at one point to its highest level in eight years. Last week, there were messages on the Reddit forum WallStreet Bets and other places on social media encouraging small investors to buy silver.

The metal shot up Monday, but many of the online investors said it wasn’t them bidding up the price. Silver for March delivery rose $2.50, or 9%, to settle at $29.42 an ounce. 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.

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