Markets rise on hope of COVID-19 treatment

Markets rose on Friday.

The S&P 500 jumped 2.7 percent, the STOXX Europe 600 rose 2.6 percent and the Nikkei 225 surged 3.1 percent.

Investors were cheered by promising results for the drug remdesivir in treating COVID-19.

Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group, said though that the trial on the drug was small and there was no control group “so there’s plenty of room for error”.

Investors shrugged off a report showing that China's GDP shrank 6.8 percent in the first quarter from a year ago.

“We expect a significant sequential recovery in Q2 as economic life returns to normal,” economists at Oxford Economics wrote.