US stocks trade higher as reopening optimism returns following week of losses

• US stocks trade higher as reopening optimism returns following week of losses.
• Bitcoin recovered somewhat from a vicious weekend selloff, but is still roughly 50% lower from April's all-time high.
• Gold prices climbed, buoyed by the rout in cryptocurrencies.

US stocks trade higher on Monday as reopening optimism returned following the second straight week of losses.

"A brace of economic data this week on a wide variety of economic indicators ranging from manufacturing, home prices, personal income, and consumer confidence will provide plenty of information on the health of the US economy for investors to ponder," John Stoltzfus from Oppenheimer Holdings said in a note on Monday.

Adding to the optimism, daily coronavirus infections in the US have fallen to their lowest in roughly 11 months, revealing continued progress in battling the pandemic.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note slipped by -0.017% to 1.615% Monday compared to Friday's 1.629%.

On Friday, US stocks closed mixed. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, despite finishing lower, managed to end a four-week losing streak, gaining just more than 0.1% for the five-day period.

Optimism towards an improving US economy increased following the Thursday release of the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index. The April LEI data showed a 17% year-over-year improvement, as well as a 1.6% month-over-month improvement.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 9:30 a.m. ET market open on Monday:

• S&P 500: 4,179.28, up 0.56%
• Dow Jones industrial average: 34,351.92, up 0.42% (144.08 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 13,557.50, up 0.71%

Bitcoin regained its losses, rising by 13.31% to $$38,417 as of Monday morning - but is still roughly 50% lower from April's all-time high.

HSBC chief Noel Quinn on Monday said that his bank has no plans of initiating a cryptocurrency desk nor offering these to clients, Reuters first reported. The CEO of Europe's largest bank cited the volatility of cryptocurrencies as the reason, as well as a lack of transparency around digital assets.

"Given the volatility, we are not into bitcoin as an asset class, if our clients want to be there then of course they are, but we are not promoting it as an asset class within our wealth management business," Quinn said.

Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz told Goldman Sachs in a recent interview that dogecoin is a temporary fad that's likely to lose momentum because institutions aren't investing in it.

Novogratz is bullish on cryptocurrencies in general but is less excited about dogecoin, unlike billionaire Mark Cuban.

Oil prices climbed. West Texas Intermediate crude rose as much as 1.29%, to $64.40 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, climbed 1.32%, to $67.32 per barrel.

Gold rose 0.4%, to $1,881.83 per ounce, buoyed by an immense selloff in cryptocurrencies. The precious metal, according to Sophie Griffiths, an analyst at Oanda, is on track to book gains of over 6% across May in its best monthly performance since December.