US STOCKS-Wall St advances as small-time traders turn to silver

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* iShares Silver Trust ETF set for best day since 2008
* Wall Street's fear gauge eases from 3-month high
* Indexes up: Dow 0.38%, S&P 0.65%, Nasdaq 0.99%

(Updates to market open)
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
Feb 1 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes climbed on
Monday following a steep sell-off last week, as a shift in the
retail trading frenzy to silver drove up mining stocks and
investors monitored progress in talks over economic stimulus.
Nine of the 11 major S&P sectors advanced, with technology
.SPLRCT leading gains. Energy .SPNY and consumer staples
.SPLRCS lagged the most.
The iShares Silver Trust ETF SLV.N jumped 9.3% as silver
broke above $30 an ounce for the first time since 2013 with an
army of retail traders storming into the metal after betting
billions of dollars on stocks last week. Silver miners Hecla Mining Co HL.N , Coeur Mining Inc
CDE.N and Wheaton Precious Metals Corp WPM.N surged between
5.5% and 35%.
"It's just a relief rally after the sharp decline on
Friday," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan
Capital Securities in New York.
Wall Street's main indexes last week logged their steepest
weekly fall since October, as investors digested efficacy data
from Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine trial results, while a
slugfest between Wall Street hedge funds and retail investors
added to volatility.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX eased on Monday from
three-month highs that were fueled by a surge in shares of
GameStop Corp GME.N , AMC Entertainment Holdings AMC.N and
others that burnt hedge funds who had bet against the companies.
GameStop was down about 18%, while AMC jumped another 8% on
Monday.
The wild swings in the so-called "meme" stocks dominated
news on Wall Street last week, even as Apple Inc AAPL.O ,
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and other corporate heavyweights
reported quarterly results. "The sentiment right now is precarious. The market has
already discounted a good earnings season and rebound in
economic growth based on the vaccination," Cardillo said.
Of the 184 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported
earnings, 84.2% have topped analyst expectations, well above the
75.5% beat rate for the past four quarters, according to
Refinitiv data as of Friday.
Focus now turns towards quarterly earnings from Amazon.com
Inc AMZN.O and Google-owner Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O on Tuesday
to wrap up results from the so-called FAANG group.
President Joe Biden will meet 10 moderate Republican
senators on Monday to discuss their proposal to shrink his
sweeping $1.9 trillion U.S. COVID-19 relief package, even as
Democrats prepare to push legislation through Congress without
Republican support. At 10:05 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 102.99 points, or 0.38%, to 30,097.24, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 24.19 points, or 0.65%, to 3,739.05 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC gained 128.37 points, or 0.99%, to 13,199.07.
Latest economic survey showed U.S. manufacturing activity
slowed slightly in January, while a measure of prices paid by
factories for raw materials and other inputs jumped to its
highest level in nearly 10 years, strengthening expectations
inflation will perk up this year. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.1-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.8-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 69 new highs and 10 new lows.