US STOCKS-Wall Street gains on Boeing news, Trump's reopening plan

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* Boeing to resume airplane production in Washington state
* Gilead surges on report of positive data from COVID-19
trial
* Indexes rise: Dow 1.9%, S&P 500 1.7%, Nasdaq 0.5%

(Updates to late afternoon)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
April 17 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Friday, helped by a
surge in Boeing shares, President Donald Trump's plan to reopen
the economy and hopes of a potential drug by Gilead to treat
COVID-19.
Shares of the U.S. planemaker BA.N soared on plans to
restart commercial jet production in Washington state after
halting operations last month due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The S&P 500 was up sharply from its March trough and set to
gain for the week 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 remains well off its all-time high and
strategists have warned of a deep economic slump as a halt in
business activity puts millions of Americans out of work.
Some U.S. states on Friday were expected to announce
timetables for lifting restrictions, a day after Trump outlined
guidelines for a phased reopening of the devastated U.S.
economy. The plans "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.
The news on Boeing, which Bradshaw says his firm owns, has
helped lift optimism as well.
Gilead Sciences Inc GILD.O surged 8.1% following a report
that patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19, the respiratory
disease caused by the coronavirus, 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. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 445.98 points,
or 1.89%, to 23,983.66, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 47.29 points,
or 1.69%, to 2,846.84 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
40.45 points, or 0.47%, to 8,572.81.
Bank stocks .SPXBK recovered after four straight days of
losses triggered by lenders reporting several billion dollars in
reserves to cover potential loan defaults. Financial stocks
.SPSY were the top boost to the S&P 500.
Apple Inc AAPL.O fell as Goldman Sachs downgraded the
stock on expectations of a 36% drop in iPhone shipments during
the third quarter due to coronavirus-related lockdowns.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
4.96-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.58-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted eight new 52-week highs and no new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 28 new highs and nine new lows.