US stocks put on a turn of speed in the first trading day of the new year, after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's meeting last month added to confidence that rates were unlikely to rise much further.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.64 per cent, or 20.51 points, to 1,268.8 - its biggest daily gain in point terms since April - and gave a boost to investors after a lacklustre 2005 in which the index rose just 3 per cent.