Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD)

[Tha Part Time Er]

Shares of Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD, -1.01% rose 4.6% in premarket trading Monday, after Bloomberg reported over the weekend that U.K. drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC AZN, -0.03% AZN, -2.42% made a preliminary approach regarding a potential merger, although the report said the companies weren't in formal talks and Gilead was not currently interested in selling or merging. On Monday, The Times of London reported that AstraZeneca abandoned the tentative interest in Gilead. AstraZeneca's stock fell 2.5% ahead of the open. Gilead makes the experimental COVID-19 treatment remdesivir, and AstraZeneca said last week that it has started producing the University of Oxford's potential COVID-19 vaccine. As of Friday's close, Gilead's market capitalization was $96.24 billion, according to FactSet, and AstraZeneca had a market cap of $141.33 billion. Gilead's stock has gained 18.1% year to date through Friday, while AstraZeneca shares have advanced 8.0% and the S&P 500 SPX, +2.62% has slipped 1.1%.