A stock market surge Tuesday welcomed traders back to the iconic floor of the New York Stock Exchange, which had been shut down since March as a health precaution.

The Dow jumped more than 500 points. The S&P 500 briefly touched above 3,000 for the first time since March. The Nasdaq continued its upswing.

Wall Street's euphoria, however, has Multivariate economist and market watcher Max Wolff - feeling puzzled.

"Having a constant sort of drumbeat of good news - kind of - out of the world of coronavirus is great - unless you look close. If you look close we are unfortunately setting global records for new cases. If you look close we've lost 100,000 of our fellow citizens' lives and 41 million of there jobs. And the problem with things like that is when the tide goes out you can kind of see what the destruction is here."

That said, just look to Merck for the bulk of Tuesday's optimism. The drug maker is jumping into the COVID19 vaccine race with both feet.. It bought an Austrian vaccine maker, announced a collaboration with a research non-profit to develop two separate vaccines and a partnership to develop an experimental oral anti-viral drug with privately held Ridgeback Biotherapeutics all in one day. The drug giant expects to start vaccinating volunteers "within weeks." The aggressive stance was welcomed by investors who pushed the stock higher.

Economic reports were also encouraging.

Consumer confidence crept higher in May. This could be the first sign consumer moods are stabilizing as states begin to reopen.

And new home sales unexpectedly rose last month. Sales on the low end, priced below the $200,000 mark, made up nearly half of all purchases.