- Global stocks were bouncing Friday after pharma giant Gilead announced progress in developing a drug to treat the coronavirus.
- US futures rose sharply, with all three major indexes set to gain more than 2% at the open.
- Investors shrugged off poor economic data from China, which posted a GDP fall of 6.8% in the first quarter, it's first contraction in over 40 years.
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US futures were bouncing Friday as investors shrugged off China's first economic contraction in more than 40 years, and focused on progress being made in developing a drug to treat the coronavirus, and President Trump's plans to reopen the US economy.
Gilead Sciences reported overnight that an antiviral drug called Remdesivir is delivering positive results in treating COVID-19 in a University of Chicago Trial, boosting markets, with investors betting that a successful drug trial could pave the way for the easing of global lockdowns.
US futures rose on the three major indexes with the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq all up more than 2% in pre-market trading.
Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade said: "The fresh optimism is fueled on the back of two factors: firstly, Donald Trump's announcement of partial opening of the economy and finally, Gilead Science has found more effective results in treating the coronavirus patients."
Gilead's stock price rose roughly 19% in pre-market trading on the Nasdaq exchange.
Investors shrug off poor Chinese data
Data on Friday showed the Chinese economy shrank by almost 7% compared to last year. Growth was down 9.8% compared to the previous quarter.
This puts the country at its worst economic performance in more than 40 years, meaning that the coronavirus outbreak has proved more costly to the country than both the SARS epidemic and the global financial crisis.
But most markets shrugged off the data, buoyed on the effectiveness of Remdesivir.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at markets.com, said: "[Remdesivir] is not actually a vaccine, but anything that can help end lockdowns and get economies moving quickly is a huge positive."
The yield on US treasures also fell, a sign of an improving economic picture.
Bond prices and yields are inversely correlated. Lower lower bond prices signals less demand for them fewer people buying them meaning a greater willingness to flock to riskier assets.
But Aslam warned that "equities markets have got ahead of themselves and have lost connection with reality" meaning a major price crash is on the horizon.
"I agree that most of the countries are about to see their coronavirus peak, but massive damage has been done to the economy during this time period but until and unless we see a bottom forming in the economic numbers, any rise in the equity markets is prone to some serious risk," he said.
US President Donald Trump is pushing to restart the US economy as early as next month.
But steep losses were seen in the US oil market. US crude oil fell sharply to reach another 18-month low around $18 with Aslam warning that this could drive many energy companies to the brink of collapse.
"Some of the energy companies such as Chesapeake energy are already sitting on the verge of bankruptcy. My question is have the equity markets factored that in or have these markets been given a get-out-of-jail car," he said.
Here is the market-round up as of 6.15 a.m. ET.
- US futures sharply rose. Futures underlying the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.91% , the S&P 500 rose 2.76% and Nasdaq rose 2.07%
- Asian indexes followed rose despite the data with Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 1.35%, and Japan's Nikkei up 2.09% and China's Shanghai Composite up 0.31%,
- European equities followed suit, with Germany's DAX up 3.72%, Britain's FTSE 100 up 3.24%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 up 3.62%.
- Oil prices tumbled with West Texas Intermediate down 7.7% at about $18.46 a barrel, and Brent crude was down by 0.6% at $28.33.
- The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose above 5.83%.
- Gold fell 1.98% to $1683.75
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