US STOCKS-Boeing, Trump's restart plan boost Wall Street

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* Gilead surges on report of positive data from COVID-19
trial
* Boeing to resume airplane production in Washington
* Schlumberger records $8.5 bln charge in first quarter
* Indexes rise: Dow 1.61%, S&P 1.66%, Nasdaq 0.94%

(Updates to open)
By Medha Singh
April 17 (Reuters) - Wall Street bounced on Friday as Boeing
said it would resume production of commercial jets next week,
with investors also cheering President Donald Trump's plan to
reopen the economy and on hopes of a potential drug to treat
COVID-19.
The U.S. planemaker's shares BA.N soared 11.7% on plans to
resume commercial aircraft production in Washington state after
halting operations last month due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The S&P 500 .SPX 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.
"The overall picture remains one of high uncertainty with
things certainly looking up from a month ago, but the economic
and public-health outlook is still far from rosy," said Art
Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New
York.
Late on Thursday, Trump outlined a plan 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. In a bright spot, big U.S. lenders rebounded 5.7% 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.
Gilead Sciences Inc GILD.O surged 8.2% following a media
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 that it expected to report results from a study in
severe COVID-19 patients at the end of April. "The anecdotal evidence out of Gilead's Chicago trials for
remdesivir are just that: anecdotal, even though they are part
of a Phase 3 trial," said Peter Cecchini, managing director and
chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York.
The risk-on sentiment pushed Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX
below 40 and sent safe-haven gold tumbling almost 2%. GOL/
At 10:25 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 380.07 points, or 1.61%, at 23,917.75, the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 46.40 points, or 1.66%, at 2,845.95. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 79.87 points, or 0.94%, at 8,612.23.
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and streaming platform Netflix Inc
NFLX.O retreated slightly from record highs after surging this
week on higher demand for online streaming services and home
delivery of goods.
The world's top oilfield services provider Schlumberger NV
SLB.N rose 5.4% even as it swung to a loss in the first
quarter on $8.5 billion in asset writedowns and cut its
dividend. Apple Inc AAPL.O fell 1.9% as Goldman Sachs downgraded its
stock, expecting iPhone shipments to drop 36% during the third
quarter due to coronavirus-related lockdowns.