Updated at 2:41 p.m. ET
U.S. stock markets surged Tuesday after reports that retail sales rebounded strongly in May and that the Trump administration is preparing an infrastructure plan to boost the economy, which has been battered by the coronavirus crisis.
Tuesday afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average — up for the third trading day in a row — was up more than 600 points, or 2.4%, and the broader S&P 500 index was up 2.1%.
Retail sales climbed a record 17.7% in May as states reopened their economies, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Despite the rebound from historic drops in March and April, sales were still down from a year earlier.
The stock market also got a boost from a Bloomberg report that the Trump administration was preparing a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure spending plan. The report, citing unnamed sources, said that in addition to roads and bridges, the draft plan would also fund 5G wireless infrastructure and rural broadband.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.