NEW YORK: US stocks advanced on Tuesday after a record surge in May retail sales revived hopes of a swift post-pandemic economic rebound, with sentiment also lifted by data showing reduced COVID-19 death rates in a trial of a generic steroid drug.
A Commerce Department report showed overall retail receipts rose 17.7% last month as Americans resumed spending after weeks of lockdown, although the rebound retraces only a fraction of the historic drops in March and April.
Retailers Kohl's Corp and Nordstrom Inc surged 7% and 14%, respectively, and were among the top advancers on the S&P 500 index.
"We're continuing to see better-than-expected economic data fuel this bull rally," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell told US lawmakers on Tuesday that while the economic data is encouraging, a full recovery will not occur until the Americans are sure that the health crisis has been brought under control.
At 12:56 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 582.91 points, or 2.26%, at 26,346.07, the S&P 500 was up 64.46 points, or 2.10%, at 3,131.05. The Nasdaq Composite was up 184.32 points, or 1.90%, at 9,910.35.
All 11 S&P sub-indexes were trading higher, led by a 2.8% jump for the healthcare index.
Industrial giants Caterpillar Inc jumped 5.1% and Boeing Co 4.6%, leading gains on the blue-chip Dow index.-Reuters
Comments
Comments are closed.