Kohl's has faced tepid sales growth as it struggles to attract budget-conscious shoppers still hurting from elevated inflation. In May the retail chain, which has roughly 1,100 stores around the U.S., reported a fiscal first-quarter loss of $15 million and that net sales fell more than 4% from the year-ago period.

The latest so-called meme stocks are the department store Kohl’s, which has surged this week, and the online-based real estate company Opendoor Technologies, which has skyrocketed this month. Both companies have been struggling in their respective sectors.

A day after Opendoor Technologies Inc. was swept up in the latest round of meme-stock mania, shares of Kohl’s Corp. skyrocketed amid what a behavioral-finance expert describes as a “mini-bubble.” Shares of the discount department-store chain ended the session up 37.