US STOCKS-Wall St ends higher on Boeing bump, stimulus eyed

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* Boeing surges as MAX 737 test flight starts
* Pending home sales jump in May
* Gilead announces remdesivir pricing

(Updates to market close)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, June 29 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks closed
higher on Monday and the S&P 500 was poised to clinch its
biggest quarterly percentage gain since 1998 as investors hoped
for a stimulus-backed economic rebound, while a surge in Boeing
shares helped boost the blue-chip Dow.
The planemaker's BA.N shares jumped more than 13% 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.
While the S&P 500 is up more than 17% for the quarter, the
index is down slightly for the month, as stocks have been
buffeted by signs of progress in battling the coronavirus and a
recent resurgence in cases.
"For all the up, for all the down, volatility isn't going
anywhere," said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird
in Milwaukee. "Maybe that is the lesson of June, these one-day
moves seem impressive but you string 20 of them together and
you've got nothing."
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
579.5 points, or 2.32%, to 25,595.05, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
44.26 points, or 1.47%, to 3,053.31 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 116.93 points, or 1.2%, to 9,874.15.
Each of the 11 major S&P sectors was in positive territory,
led by industrial .SPLRCI stocks.
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.
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 after the company said it would buy
a 20% stake in Kim Kardashian West's makeup brand for $200
million.