US stocks rose on the day on Friday and also posted gains for the week, boosted by a surge in Boeing Co shares, US President Donald Trump’s plan to reopen the pandemic-battered US economy and hopes of a potential drug by Gilead Sciences Inc to treat COVID-19.
The NASDAQ Composite added 6.1 percent for the week and registered its biggest two-week percentage gain since 2001.
Boeing shares soared nearly 15 percent on plans to restart commercial jet production in Washington state after halting operations last month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gilead surged almost 10 percent following a report that patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19 had responded positively to its experimental drug remdesivir.
The report cited partial data from a University of Chicago hospital, one of 152 locations participating in the trial.
With no treatments or vaccines approved for COVID-19, the news helped lift global equity markets.
However, Gilead said the totality of the data from the trial needed to be analyzed, and it expected to report results from a study testing the drug in severe COVID-19 patients at the end of this month.
“If you can ultimately get a powerful treatment in lieu of a vaccine in the next couple of months, that would be good for cyclical stocks, anything economically sensitive,” said R.J. Grant, head of trading at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc in New York. “If we can get some sort of back to normal in some way that the economy could start to function, the banks are going to rip,” he added.
The S&P 500 is up nearly 30 percent from its trough last month following a raft of global stimulus and hopes that the spread of the virus was nearing a peak in the US.
However, the index remains about 15 percent off its all-time high, and strategists have warned of a deep economic slump from the halt in business activity and layoffs.
Some US states are expected to begin announcing timetables for lifting restrictions. On Thursday, Trump unveiled guidelines for a staggered, three-stage process by states to lift restrictions on business and social life to curb the pandemic.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday rose 704.81 points, or 2.99 percent, to 24,242.49, the S&P 500 gained 75.01 points, or 2.68 percent, to 2,874.56 and the NASDAQ Composite added 117.78 points, or 1.38 percent, to 8,650.14.
For the week, the Dow added 2.2 percent and the S&P 500 rose 3 percent.
The reopening guidelines “provide some hope and optimism for folks and the market and the whole economy. It’s a start,” said Gary Bradshaw, portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management in Dallas, Texas.
Bradshaw, who owns Boeing shares, said the plane maker’s news was positive as well.
“I certainly haven’t given up on it,” he said.
Bank stocks recovered after four straight days of losses triggered by lenders’ reporting several billion US dollars in reserves to cover potential loan defaults. The S&P 500 financial index ended up 5.6 percent, while the S&P energy index jumped 10.4 percent.
Apple Inc fell 1.4 percent as Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock on expectations of a 36 percent drop in iPhone shipments during the company’s fiscal third quarter due to coronavirus-related lockdowns.
Volume on US exchanges was 12.75 billion shares, compared with the 13.72 billion average for the full session over the past 20 trading days.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by a 5.18-to-1 ratio; on the NASDAQ, a 3.88-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 31 new highs and 13 new lows.
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