Fox Business’ Stuart Varney Says ‘Promising’ Coronavirus Treatment is Fueling Stock Market Rally

Fox Business host Stuart Varney celebrated a potential emerging treatment for the coronavirus as the reason for a boost in the stock market Wednesday, while the economy remains mostly under lockdown.

Biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences announced in a press statement on Wednesday that remdesivir, an experimental antivirus drug, seemed to have a positive effect in preliminary tests for a coronavirus treatment.

“A government-run study of Gilead’s remdesivir, perhaps the most closely watched experimental drug to treat the novel coronavirus, showed that the medicine is effective against Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus,” Stat News reported Wednesday.

The drug is still under examination by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since Gilead’s clinical trial did not compare against a control group, but Bloomberg noted that the company saw Wednesday morning increases in their stock market shares.

As Varney covered the market rally on Wednesday, he attributed part of the uptick to what appears to be a “promising” treatment:

We are six minutes into the session and this is a rally by any other name. We have lost a little of the ground but are still up 370. That is 1.5 percent. I want to come into the whole company here. I can count a few factors as to why we are up this morning. Number one, we have got this remdesivir from Gilead Sciences which looks promising as a treatment for the virus.

He went on to predict that the Federal Reserve would announce more asset purchases, arguing “I think this market is looking to the other side of the bad economic news that is current.”

“We’ve got a rotten economy now but I think the market’s looking to the other side,” Varney forecasted. “I think we have a job on our hands this morning. We have to explain to our viewers how come the economy is so bad but the stock market is rallying so strongly.”

Watch above, via Fox Business.

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