Wall Street gains on Boeing, Trump’s restart plan

Wall Street bounced on Friday as Boeing said it would resume production of commercial jets, with investors also cheering President Donald Trump’s plan to reopen the economy and on hopes of a potential drug by Gilead Sciences to treat COVID-19.

The U.S. planemaker’s shares soared 11.9% on plans to restart commercial aircraft production in Washington state after halting operations last month due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The S&P 500 has now regained about 30% from a March trough and is set for its third weekly gain in four following a raft of global stimulus and on hopes that statewide lockdowns would be eased as the outbreak showed signs of ebbing.

However, the index is still about 19% away from reclaiming its all-time high and analysts have warned of a deep economic slump, as a halt in business activity puts millions of Americans out of work.

Trump outlined a plan on Thursday to reopen U.S. states in a staggered, three-stage process, but the plan was a set of recommendations rather than orders, and left the decision largely up to state governors.

Gilead (GILD.O) surged 8.2% following a report that patients with severe symptoms of the disease had responded positively to its experimental drug remdesivir.

With no treatments or vaccines currently approved for the coronavirus, the news lifted global equity markets, but Gilead said the totality of the data from the trial needed to be analyzed and it expected to report results from a study in severe COVID-19 patients at the end of April.

Bank stocks bounced back after four straight days of losses on reporting several billion dollars in reserves to cover potential loan defaults. Financial stocks .SPSY were the top boost to the S&P 500.

At 11:29 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 307.68 points, or 1.31%, at 23,845.36, the S&P 500 was up 32.78 points, or 1.17%, at 2,832.33. The Nasdaq Composite was up 20.09 points, or 0.24%, at 8,552.46.

Amazon.com Inc and Netflix Inc eased slightly from record highs after surging this week on strong demand for online streaming services and home delivery of goods.

Apple Inc fell 2.4% as Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock, expecting iPhone shipments to drop 36% during the third quarter due to coronavirus-related lockdowns. The S&P index recorded eight new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 25 new highs and six new lows.

Wall Street gains on Boeing, Trump’s restart plan, Reuters, Apr 17