Asian Stock Update: markets rise following Wall Street’s rally

Asian shares progressed on Thursday, riding a flood of optimism about a potential treatment for the Covid-19 that set off a rally on Wall Street strong enough to supersede information indicating the U.S. economy had logged its worst quarterly performance since 2009.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 NIK, +2.13% flooded 2.7% in early daytime exchanging, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 XJO, +2.39% increased 2.1%. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, +1.33%, included 1.3%. Markets in South Korea and Hong Kong were shut for holidays. Benchmark files in Taiwan Y9999, +2.04% , Singapore STI, 1.87% and Indonesia JAKIDX, +3.26% rose. 

On Wall Street, the upswell of expectation about curbing the virus outbreak was so strong that investors altogether avoided the report demonstrating the U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8% yearly rate in the initial three months of the year. 

The S&P 500 went up 2.7% higher, expanding a rally that is brought the U.S. securities exchange to the verge of its highest month in 45 years.

Dow floods above 400 points at Wednesday’s open amid perky report on Gilead’s trial coronavirus treatment 

U.S. stocks flooded higher Wednesday morning, supported halfway by information on an experimental treatment from Gilead for the novel strain of COVID-19. Market investors and traders have been anxiously waiting for a viable treatment for the lethal pathogen that has killed more 212,000 individuals and tainted more than 3 million people worldwide since emerging in Wuhan, China, in December.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +2.20% rose 426 points, or 1.8%, at 24,531, the S&P 500 record SPX, +2.65% picked up 2% at 2,918, while the NASDAQ Composite Index COMP, +3.56% progressed 2.1% at 8,787.

 Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve will finish up it is a two-day meeting with an announcement due at 2 p.m. Eastern, followed some time later by Chairman Jerome Powell’s news conference.