Wall Street regained upward momentum following Tuesday's lows as investor sentiment was boosted by more positive data for Gilead Sciences's (NASDAQ: GILD) potential coronavirus treatment remdesivir. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced that their clinical trial showed that 50% of patients treated with the drug showed clinical improvement in 10 days and more than half we discharged from the hospital within two weeks.
The positive coronavirus treatment news overshadowed the United States' first quarter GDP report that showed the economy shrinking for the first time since 2014. The country's GDP contracted by 4.8% on an annualized basis and was mainly pulled down by the decrease in consumption during the quarter. Consumer spending was down 7.6%, which impacted domestic economic activity greatly.
The Federal Reserve also released its last FOMC minutes on Wednesday, reporting the central bank's unanimous decision to keep benchmark interest rates near zero. "The ongoing public health crisis will weigh heavily on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term," the statement read. "The committee expects to maintain this target range until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals."
Here's how the markets settled for the mid-week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY) +2.66% or +76.12 points to 2,939.51
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +2.21% or +532.31 points to 24,633.86
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +3.57% or +306.98 points to 8,914.71
In Major Stock News, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) shares rose following the tech giants first quarter earnings beat, with the Google parent's revenue beating estimates by $87 million despite the coronavirus impacting ad revenue. Boeing (NYSE: BA) shares also increased following its earnings after the manufacturer disclosed that it will cut payroll by about 10% in response to the coronavirus economic impact. Shares of AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC) increases after the company stated that it will not play movies from Universal Studios (NYSE: UVV) when theaters reopen due to the movie studio's recent direct-to-consumer movie launches.
In Stock Sector News, most sectors ended Wednesday's session with positive performance gains. Those who posted gains include Energy +7.35%, Communication Services +5.05%, Information Technology +4.22%, Financials +3.01%, Materials +2.57%, Consumer Discretionary +2.31%, Industrials +1.94%, Health Care +0.74% and Real Estate +0.35%. Only Consumer Staples and Utilities declined at -0.41% and -0.92%, respectively.
In Commodity and Currency News, June oil futures contracts increased on Wednesday on coronavirus treatment hopes. West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) ended the day up 24.8% to cost $15.40 per barrel. Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) also increased on Wednesday, with prices soaring 10.12% to price at $22.53 per barrel. Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices also saw a bump amid the increased stock market optimism, as the metal's ounce price gained 0.36% to cost $1,728.40. Finally, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) decreased -0.35%.
As the market moves in Thursday, investors will focus on more economic reopening news as well as last week's weekly jobless report and corporate earnings from companies like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR).