The S&P 500 just climbed faster than ever before
Times are good in the US. The S&P 500 kicked the morning off by leaping 0.8 per cent to 2,068.86 – its biggest intra-day climb ever.
Although it then dropped back slightly to 2,067.11, equity investors were clearly buoyed by something. Most likely, it's monetary easing in China, where interest rates were cut by 0.25 per cent earlier today.
Leading the risers were tech stocks: Yahoo jumped sharply to just over $52.17 as the market opened, while HP and Google also rose.
Although investors had been encouraged by news from abroad, at home the picture looks rosy as well. Yesterday Charles Schwab boss Kully Samra told City AM that the US is likely to make its first, much-anticipated, move to raise rates by the middle of the year.
That's against expectations of an autumn rate rise for the UK.
But labour and inflation figures in the US suggest the recovery will stay consistently strong throughout 2015.