European session review: USD rises as U.S. Treasury bond yields hold near one-year highs after approval of $1.9 trillion stimulus bill in U.S.

USD strengthened against its major rivals in the European session on Monday as the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury hovered at 1.61%, near one-year highs, as expectations of faster economic recovery and accelerating inflation heightened after the U.S. Senate passed President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill on Saturday.

Joe Biden said he hoped that the House of Representatives would pass the revised bill quickly. According to the media reports, the House will vote on the Senate version of the bill on Tuesday and the legislation could be signed into law early this week. The bill includes up to $1,400 stimulus checks to many Americans, and billions of dollars for states and municipalities, small businesses and vaccine distribution.

Investors' sentiment was also bolstered by stronger-than-anticipated economic data from Europe and China and an increase in the pace of vaccine rollout in the U.S. 

A report from Sentix revealed that investor sentiment hit the highest levels in more than a year in February. According to the report, the investor sentiment index rose to +5.0 in March from -0.2 in February. This was the highest reading since February 2020. Economists had expected the indicator to advance to +1.9. It was reported that the current conditions index improved to -19.3, a one-year high, from -27.5 in February, while the expectations indicator edged up to 32.5 from 31.5 in the previous month.

China reported on Sunday that its exports spiked 60.6 percent y-o-y in the January-February period, following an 18.1 percent y-o-y jump in December 2020. This marked a record rise and was well above economists' forecast of a 38.9 percent gain. Meanwhile, the Chinese imports climbed 22.2 percent y-o-y after a 6.5 percent y-o-y surge in December. China's overall trade surplus came in at $103.3 billion in January-February combined, rebounding sharply from a $7.21 billion deficit in the corresponding period of 2020.