US STOCKS-S&P 500 posts biggest gain since Nov. 24, led by gains in tech shares

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* iShares Silver Trust ETF jumps
* Wall Street's fear gauge eases
* Indexes: Dow up 0.8%, S&P 500 up 1.6%, Nasdaq up 2.6%

(Updates close with volume, other details)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
Feb 1 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 registered its biggest daily
percentage gain since Nov. 24 on Monday after a steep sell-off
last week, and technology-related shares led the advance, while
a move by retail traders into silver drove up mining shares.
Investors also watched talks over the latest U.S. COVID-19
relief package.
The iShares Silver Trust ETF SLV.N - the largest
silver-backed ETF - jumped 7.1%. Silver prices XAG= climbed to
an eight-year peak of just over $30 an ounce before paring
gains.
U.S. small-cap miners Hecla Mining Co HL.N and Coeur
Mining Inc CDE.N surged. Last week, retail traders drove big gains in companies such
as GameStop Corp GME.N . GameStop was down 30.8% on Monday.
The frenzy may have changed course but is likely to stick
around for a while, said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist
at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.
"The fact of the matter is this is a powerful move in the
markets, and it's not just going to dissipate," she said.
The S&P 500 technology and consumer discretionary sectors
.SPLRCT .SPLRCD , up more than 2% each, gave the S&P 500 its
biggest boosts in the broad market rally.
Amazon.com AMZN.O , due to report results Tuesday, was
among the biggest positive influences, along with Microsoft
MSFT.O and Apple AAPL.O . Apple has filed for a six-part
notes offering, according to an SEC filing. Results are also expected this week from Alphabet GOOGL.O .
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 229.29 points,
or 0.76%, to 30,211.91, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 59.62 points,
or 1.61%, to 3,773.86 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
332.70 points, or 2.55%, to 13,403.39.
U.S. President Joe Biden was to meet with 10 moderate
Republican senators 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. The CBOE volatility index .VIX eased from three-month
highs.
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, and a
battle between Wall Street hedge funds and retail investors
added to volatility.
Robinhood, the U.S. online broker that has emerged as a
gateway for amateur traders challenging Wall Street hedge funds,
has held talks with banks about raising $1 billion in debt so it
can continue to fulfill orders for heavily shorted stocks,
according to a Reuters report, citing people familiar with the
matter. On the economic front, the latest ISM survey was mixed as
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.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
3.67-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.44-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted six new 52-week highs and no new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 100 new highs and 15 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 15.92 billion shares, compared
with the 15.6 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.