Stocks tied to the reopening of the economy led the gains once again in premarket trading. Airlines, retailers and cruise lines were higher. United was up 10%. Kohl’s added 6%. Shares of Carnival Corp. were up more than 16%.
The Dow surged 6.8% last week while the S&P 500 jumped 4.9%. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 3.4% and closed at record levels for the first time since Feb. 19. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was the first of the three major indexes to trade back at all-time highs since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the global economy.
Through Friday’s close, the S&P 500 is down just 1.1% for the year. At one point this year, the broader market index was down 30%.
A large portion of those weekly gains came Friday, when equities skyrocketed on the back of a surprise surge in U.S. employment. The Labor Department said Friday the economy added 2.5 million jobs in May, a record. Economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast a drop of more than 8 million.
