US STOCKS-Wall St set to jump at open on hopes of potential coronavirus drug

(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* Gilead's drug meets main goal of coronavirus trial
* Alphabet jumps as drop in Google ad sales steady
* Boeing up, says confident in obtaining liquidity
* U.S. economy contracted 4.8% during Q1
* Futures up: Dow 1.91%, S&P 500 1.80%, Nasdaq 1.88%

(Adds comments, details, updates prices throughout)
By C Nivedita and Shreyashi Sanyal
April 29 (Reuters) - Wall Street looked set to jump at open
on Wednesday after Gilead Sciences GILD.O reported an
encouraging update on a potential COVID-19 treatment, while
upbeat earnings reports from Google-parent Alphabet and Boeing
boosted the mood.
Gilead Sciences Inc GILD.O jumped 9.3% in premarket
trading after the drugmaker said its experimental antiviral drug
remdesivir helped improve symptoms for COVID-19 patients who
were given the drug early. "The news on Gilead is really powering the market," said
Linda Duessel, senior equity strategist at Federated Hermes in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"While we wait for a vaccine, we are looking out for
anything that will help us get back into society, and we're all
hanging on this data on a day-by-day basis."
Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O jumped 8.7% as a drop in Google ad
sales steadied in April and some consumers returned to using the
search engine for shopping in addition to looking for
coronavirus-related information.
Boeing Co BA.N reported a loss for the second straight
quarter, but shares climbed 5.7% as the planemaker said it was
confident of obtaining sufficient liquidity to fund its
operations.
Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Tuesday as
investors shifted out of growth stocks into more value-oriented
cyclical companies.
However, the main indexes have recovered 30% from their lows
in March, boosted by aggressive stimulus efforts and, more
recently, hopes of an economic revival as states begin to relax
lockdown measures.
But the latest data showed the U.S. economy contracted in
the first quarter at its sharpest pace since the Great
Recession, ending the longest expansion in history. The Commerce Department said gross domestic product fell at
a 4.8% annualized rate in the January-to-March period, while
economists in a Reuters poll were expecting a contraction of 4%.
At 9:06 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 459 points,
or 1.91%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 51.75 points, or 1.8%
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 163.75 points, or 1.88%.
Analysts now expect S&P 500 earnings to decline 14.8% from a
year earlier, a dramatic U-turn from the 6.3% year-on-year
growth seen on Jan. 1, according to Refinitiv data.
General Electric Co GE.N fell 1.3% after its industrial
businesses took a $1 billion hit to cash flow in the first
quarter and warned the damage would worsen in the next three
months.
Also up is a policy decision from the Federal Reserve and
more corporate reports from technology heavyweight Microsoft
Corp MSFT.O , social media giant Facebook Inc FB.O and
electric car-maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O after the bell.
The Fed is slated to issue its policy statement at the end
of its two-day meeting at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), where the
central bank is expected to reiterate its promise to do whatever
it takes to support the world's largest economy.