Restaurant Stocks Soar Wednesday on Positive COVID-19 Developments

Restaurant stocks are on fire...in a good way. Brinker International (NYSE: EAT) is soaring nearly 30% on an earnings beat, and Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ: CAKE) and Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) jumped as much as 20% and 8%, respectively, as more states talk about reopening parts of their economies.

Restaurant stocks continued to rebound from their initial sell-off as COVID-19 took the nation's attention. There were some positive updates Wednesday, as Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) claimed positive results for a COVID-19 treatment candidate. Between the update from Gilead, and more states discussing plans to reopen parts of their economies, investors brushed off a dismal first-quarter GDP (gross domestic product) report that showed a shrinking U.S. economy, on an annualized basis, for the first time since 2014. More specifically, the U.S. economy contracted by 4.8%, which is the most since the financial crisis in 2008.