The S&P 500 briefly rose above its February record closing high intraday and finished just shy, led by surging tech stocks, Reuters reported. It closed up 1.4% to 3,380.35.
Meanwhile the spot gold price, which soared above $2,000 last week for the first time, tumbled towards $1,860/oz earlier before jumping to $1,939/oz at the time of writing.
"Bear in mind that during the GFC, gold didn't hit its peak until three years later, so a lot more upside left in gold," MineLife's Gavin Wendt tweeted.
European markets closed higher, as did Toronto, but Australasian markets were mixed.
Futures were also mixed, notably pointing lower for the US and key European markets.
Gold majors steadied, having fallen in the order of 7-9% yesterday.
Newmont gained 0.19% in New York and Barrick eased 0.4% in Toronto.
Rio Tinto rose 2.28% in London, while Glencore gained 0.89%.
BHP was about 0.6% higher in morning Australian trade.
