S&P 500 Snapshot: Biggest Gain In More Than A Year

 | Oct 21, 2014 03:18PM ET

Europe was in rally mode when the US markets opened, and the Euro Stoxx 50 would subsequently close with a 2.19% gain. The S&P 500 opened at its intraday low, up 0.28%, and headed higher through the day to its 2.02% high in the final hour. Its closing gain of 1.96% was its best one-day performance since its 2.18% surge on October 10th of last year. The popular financial press attributes today's gain to speculation more ECB stimulus and the strong Apple-earnings effect.

The yield on the 10-Year Note closed at 2.23%, up 3 bps from yesterday's close.

Here is a 15-minute chart of the past five sessions.