Wall Street set to rise on swift economic rebound hopes

(Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones indexes were set to rise on Monday, building on last week’s sharp gains after a surprise rebound in jobs strengthened views that the U.S. economy has weathered the worst of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hammered shares of cruise line operators and airlines, including Carnival Corp (CCL.N), Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL.N), American Airlines (AAL.O) and United Airlines Holdings (UAL.O), climbed between 7% and 16.5% in premarket trading.

Planemaker Boeing Co (BA.N) gained 8.2%, set to add to its 40% surge last week.

Aiding sentiment, major oil producers agreed to extend a deal on record output cuts over the weekend. Shares of energy companies Occidental Petroleum Corp (OXY.N), Devon Energy Corp (DVN.N) and Marathon Oil Corp MRO.O jumped between 9% and 17.5%. [O/R]

U.S. stocks surged on Friday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC closing within a striking distance of its Feb. 19 all-time peak, after the unemployment rate in May unexpectedly fell. The S&P 500 had closed the week with a near 5% jump.

“The blowout jobs report has got economists talking about V-shaped recoveries,” Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group said.

The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX and the Dow .DJI are now 5.7% and 8.3% away from their respective closing highs, after surging more than 45% from their pandemic lows hit on March 23, as most businesses reopened following weeks of virus-led shutdowns.

The S&P 500 is now about 1% away from recouping all of its losses in 2020.

The focus this week will be the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, ending on Wednesday, where the jobs report is expected to be discussed.

It would be the first meeting since April when Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy could feel the weight of the economic shutdown for more than a year.

At 8:15 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 223 points, or 0.82% and S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 15.5 points, or 0.49%.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 20.25 points, or 0.21%, a day after it closed at record levels for the first time since Feb. 19.

Gilead Sciences (GILD.O) gained 4.2% after a report said Britain’s AstraZeneca (AZN.L) had approached the U.S. rival about a possible merger to form one of the world’s largest drug companies.

Electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA.O) rose 1.4% after China sales of Shanghai-made Model 3 vehicles more than tripled in May, compared with the previous month.