Markets were mostly higher on Thursday.
The S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent, the STOXX Europe 600 rose 1.1 percent and the Nikkei 225 rose 0.3 percent.
However, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.2 percent despite a report on Thursday showing that Chinese exports rose 3.5 percent in April from a year ago.
“We think the pick-up in exports is temporary and export momentum will fall in the coming months,” wrote economists at Oxford Economics.
In the US, investors shrugged off a report showing that almost 3.2 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total job losses amid the COVID-19 pandemic to over 33 million.
In Europe, the Bank of England left interest rates at 0.1 percent after its monetary policy meeting on Thursday but said it stands ready to take further action if deemed necessary.
The BoE mentioned that the UK economy is at risk of seeing output shrink by 14 percent in 2020, its biggest slump in over 300 years.
Earlier in the week, data had shown that the UK's COVID-19 death toll has overtaken Italy to become the highest in Europe.
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