Big Stocks Moving After Hours As Market Cheers Gilead, 'Reopening' Updates

Markets are cheering a double dose of encouraging news out late Thursday afternoon.

The University of Chicago Medicine recruited 125 people with COVID-19 into Gilead’s two Phase 3 clinical trials, according to STAT News. Of those people, 113 had severe disease. All the patients have been treated with daily infusions of remdesivir.

The specialist overseeing the studies for the hospital told STAT: “The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish."

Shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. GILD gained more than 15% after Thursday's close.

See Also: 10 Stocks Hitting All-Time Highs Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump announced federal guidelines for the phased reopening of the economy on a state-by-state basis.

“We must have a working economy. And we want to get it back very, very quickly," Trump said at a press conference Thursday evening. “I believe it will boom.”

Dow futures jumped more than 700 points in after-market trading, and that has also pushed some big-name stocks higher.

Apple Inc AAPL was up more than 3%, with Facebook Inc FB seeing similar gains.

Tesla Inc TSLA was higher by more than 5%, continuing a very strong week that has seen shares move from last week's closing price of $573 to its current level above $745.