NEW YORK, New York - Despite the official death toll from the coronavirus disease Covid-19 passing 200,000 on Tuesday, U.S. stocks bounced higher. The dollar also continued its recent rally, partly drive by hawkish comments from Chicago Fed President Charles Evans.

"All we've been hearing from the Fed for the last few months is we're not going to hike rates at any point in the foreseeable future. Then Evans came in and challenged that narrative, so the market got caught off-guard," Erik Nelson, macro strategist at Wells Fargo Securities in New York, was quoted as saying Tuesday by Reuters Thomson.

At the close of trading Tuesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 140.48 points, or 0.52%, to 27,288.18.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was up 34.51 points, or 1.05%, to 3,315.57.

The Nasdaq Composite climbed 184.84 points, or 1.71%, to 10,963.64.

The U.S. dollar was solidly higher Tuesday with the British pound tumbling to 1.2735. The Australian dollar dived to 0.7168. The euro fell to 1.1706.

The Japanese yen slid to 104.93, while the Swiss franc eased to 104.93.

The Canadian dollar was soft at 1.3303. The New Zealand dollar declined to 0.6630.

On overseas equity markets, the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.43%. The German Dax rose 0.41% while the CAC 40 in Paris, France advanced 0.40%.

On Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 40.90 points or 0.18% to 23360.30.

China's Shanghai Composite dropped 42.63 points or 1.29% to 3,274.30.

The Australian All Ordinaries fell 40.00 points or 0.67% to 5,973.50.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng let go 233.84 points or 0.98% to 23,716.85.