U.S. stocks advanced a second straight week as governments began taking baby steps toward reopening their economies and on early signs that science may be gaining on the coronavirus.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed the day up 2.7 percent, at 2,874.56; the broad index is now 15 percent higher than it was two weeks ago. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 1.4 percent to end at 8,650.14. All 11 stock market sectors were up, with energy and financials leading the way. Shares in the major U.S. oil companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, rose on investor sentiment that a major contraction in oil production will raise prices to the benefit of the biggest, most well-capitalized companies.
The last two weeks have seen a swarm of news around health companies seeking virus treatments and governments easing pandemic curbs. The result has been stocks bouncing way up from the recent lows that had ended the 10-year bull market. The S&P has rebounded 28 percent off its March 23 low, though remains 15 percent from its Feb. 19 peak. The Dow has advanced around 30 percent from its March 23 low but sits 18 percent down from its Feb. 12 all-time high.
GET CAUGHT UP
Summarized stories to quickly stay informed
The Wilshire 5000 index of all the stocks actively traded in the United States is down 16.7 percent, or approximately $6.1 trillion since Feb. 19. It’s up 28 percent, or $6.6 trillion, from March 23.
Markets had been flashing green all day on reports that an antiviral medicine was showing promise. Stat news reported Thursday that severely ill coronavirus patients were responding well to remdesivir, a Gilead Sciences drug, at a Chicago hospital. The trial involved only 125 people and the preliminary results were not peer reviewed, but it was welcome news for investors looking for light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, and the economic recovery that will come with it.
“Investors are looking past the economic abyss and accentuating the positives on the health-care front,” said Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research.
On Friday, University of Chicago Medicine moved to temper expectations and emphasized that “partial data from an ongoing clinical trial is by definition incomplete and should never be used to draw conclusions about the safety or efficacy of a potential treatment that is under investigation.” Still, Gilead shares spiked 10 percent.
The rally comes after three weeks of dismal economic numbers showing the pandemic has erased all U.S. job gains from the past decade. Last week, 5.2 million Americans filed unemployment claims, bringing the total to 22 million in the four weeks since President Trump declared a national emergency. The United States has not seen this level of job loss since the Great Depression.
The outbreak continues to force tens of millions of Americans to stay home and disrupt entire industries amid widespread stay-at-home mandates, though there was movement on that front, too.
Trump on Thursday released federal guidelines for a gradual return to normal in places with minimal coronavirus cases, even as health experts, business leaders and government officials say the nation’s testing capacity for the virus needs to be significantly expanded to ensure public safety.
“There is also positive sentiment being generated by the White House’s plan to begin slowly rolling back lockdown measures,” said Kristina Hooper, global market strategist at Invesco. “It seems clear that, as of late, stocks have chosen to look through what is expected to be a dramatic drop in earnings, and forward to a resurgence in economic activity in the not-too-distant future.”
State leaders also are making early moves to open their economies. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Friday announced the formation of a statewide task force that could reopen the state by early May. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) gave his blessing for municipalities to start opening up parks and beaches while maintaining social distancing.
Ten U.S. states, including three on the West Coast and seven in the east, this week began mapping out a coordinated effort to ease lockdown restrictions and begin opening businesses.
Germany this week said it would gradually begin to reopen its economy as early as next week. Its biggest automaker, Volkswagen, said it plans to resume car production.
That buoyed global markets. Britain’s FTSE 100 popped 2.8 percent, the German DAX climbed 3.2 percent and the benchmark Stoxx 600 gained 2.6 percent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 spiked 3.2 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.6 percent.
Oil prices remain at an 18-year-low as airline travel, driving and manufacturing have slowed to a crawl. U.S. crude was selling near $18 a barrel Friday, a fraction of what oil producers need to make a profit. If prices remain depressed long term, many oil companies, suppliers and adjacent service industries will be gravely wounded, resulting in bankruptcies and potentially massive layoffs.
China said its economy contracted 6.8 percent during the first three months of the year amid its coronavirus shutdown. It also reported a significantly higher death toll in Wuhan, where the virus was first detected. As of Thursday, 3,869 had died and 50,333 had been infected, according to a notification released by the Wuhan epidemic prevention and control center on Friday.
On the earnings front, consumer staples bellwether Procter & Gamble reported a 10 percent jump in sales during the first quarter as Americans stored up everything from toilet paper to Pampers during the lockdown.
“Optimism about an effective treatment is driving prices higher,” said Daniel P. Wiener, chairman of Adviser Investments, based in Newton, Mass. “But it’s still too early to get excited. We have a lot further to go before we can sound the all-clear.”
