US STOCKS-Wall St gains on Boeing bump, remdesivir hopes

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* Boeing surges as MAX 737 test flight starts
* Coty top pct gainer on the S&P 500
* Dow up 1.92%, S&P 500 up 1.19%, Nasdaq up 0.92%

(Updates to mid-afternoon, changes byline)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
June 29 (Reuters) - Wall Street climbed on Monday and the
S&P 500 moved closer to clinching its biggest quarterly gain
since 1998 as investors clung to hopes of a stimulus-backed
economic rebound, while Boeing shares shot higher to help boost
the blue-chip Dow.
The planemaker's BA.N shares jumped 10.2% after a 737 MAX
took off on Monday from a Seattle-area airport on the first day
of certification flight testing with U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration and company test pilots, a crucial moment in
Boeing's worst-ever crisis. A spike in virus infections in Southern and Western states
last week sent the S&P 500 down nearly 3%, but the threat of a
deeper-than-feared recession has led investors to expect more
stimulus measures from the Federal Reserve or Congress.
But the sting of rising infections was blunted by the
pricing of the antiviral drug remdesivir, which has been shown
to alter the course of COVID-19, by Gilead Sciences GILD.O .
The company also agreed to send nearly all of its supply of the
drug to the United States over the next three months.
"The market is so antsy and edgy about every headline – last
week the world was falling apart because of an explosion of
cases and then today Gilead is going to charge for a remdesivir
treatment so it's all good," said Ken Polcari, chief market
strategist at SlateStone Wealth LLC in Jupiter, Florida.
"The Boeing news was good in terms of them starting to fly
again so that is a positive for sure for a big industrial name."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 479.07 points,
or 1.92%, to 25,494.62, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 35.93 points,
or 1.19%, to 3,044.98 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
89.44 points, or 0.92%, to 9,846.66.
Each of the 11 major S&P sectors was in positive territory,
with industrial .SPLRCI and material .SPLRCM stocks leading
gains.
The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX has rebounded about 36% from
its March 23 closing low. Monday's gains pushed the index above
its 200-day moving average, a technical support level it had
fallen through with last week's decline.
Data on Monday showed contracts to buy previously owned
homes rebounded by the most on record in May, suggesting the
housing market was starting to turn around. Later this week,
investors will focus on employment and consumer confidence data
for June.
Still, Wall Street was looking for more stimulus measures to
buttress the economy. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said a further
injection of cash was critical to the bank's thesis for a
"V"-shaped U.S. economic recovery.
The BlackRock Investment Institute downgraded U.S. equities
to "neutral," citing risks of fading fiscal stimulus, an
extended epidemic as well as renewed U.S.-China trade tensions.

Although a $3 trillion aid bill was passed by the House of
Representatives in May, the Republican-controlled Senate has not
taken up the package and lawmakers are not expected to move
toward another coronavirus bill until sometime in July.

Coty Inc COTY.N jumped 12.9% after the company said it
would buy a 20% stake in Kim Kardashian West's makeup brand for
$200 million. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
3.00-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.01-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week high and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 50 new highs and 16 new lows.