On Thursday
Asian shares were poised to track Wall Street's gains on hopes the corona-virus pandemic is nearing a peak and that governments would roll out more stimulus measures.
Risk-sensitive currencies climbed on budding optimism the corona-virus pandemic may be peaking although the euro was dented by the European Union's failure to agree on more support for their weakened economies.
The novel corona-virus has infected more than 1.4 million people and killed over 83,000 globally, the latest figures compiled by Reuters show. U.S. deaths topped 14,600, the second highest reported number in the world after Italy.
Oil prices surged in early trade ahead of a crucial meeting of oil-producing countries. Media reports suggested Russia would cut its output and Algeria's energy minister said he expected a "fruitful" meeting though there remained tensions between the world's top three producers, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Wall Street has rallied on Trump's optimism though recent U.S. data is only now beginning to reflect the damage to businesses and the massive job losses to come.
The pandemic is still infecting and killing large numbers of people across Europe and there is still no sign that the peak of the region's outbreak has been reached, the EU's disease monitoring agency said.
The Trump administration this week asked lawmakers for an additional $250 billion in emergency economic aid for small U.S. businesses reeling from the impact of the outbreak. But Congressional efforts were stalling as Democrats said they would only back a $250-billion measure that was coupled with similar amounts of aid for hospitals and local governments.
Wuhan, the Chinese city where the new corona-virus emerged, ended its more-than two-month lock-down on Wednesday.
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