NEW YORK, New York - Bargain-hunters drove up the prices of stocks on U.S. markets on Tuesday.

"Our inputs today support the kind of momentum that we saw on Friday and a continuation of that," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities was quoted as saying by CNBC Tuesday. "But the most important thing for investors is you get to a point where you've priced in a lot of worst-case scenarios."

The Nasdaq Composite did best, rallying 321.73 points or 2.76 percent to 11,984.52.

The Standard and Poor's 500 climbed 80.81 points or 2.02 percent to 4,088.85.

The Dow Jones industrials gained 431.07 points or 1.34 percent to 32,654.59.

The U.S. dollar lost ground Tuesday with all the major currencies, except the yen, plowing ahead. The euro rose to the lofty heights of 1.0543 around the New York close Tuesday. The British pound strengthened to 1.2480. The Swiss franc increased a tad to 0.9940.

The Canadian dollar rose to 1.2821. The Australian dollar firmed to 0.7020. The New Zealand dollar edged up to 0.6355. The Japanese yen inched down to 129.44.

On overseas equity markets, the German Dax failed 1.59 percent. The CAC 430 in Paris, France advanced 1.30 percent. In London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.72 percent.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong rallied 652.31 points or 3.27 percent to close Tuesday at 20,602.52.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 112.70 points or 0.42 percent to 26,659.75.

China's Shanghai Composite advanced 19.95 points or 0.65 percent to 3,093.70.

The Australian All Ordinaries gained 24.40 points or 0.33 percent to 7,350.60.

South Korea's Kospi Composite rose 22.86 points or 0.92 percent to 2,620.44.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 went against the trend, sliding 19.78 points or 0.18 percent to 11,137.88.