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| - Stock markets rose Thursday as investors looked beyond grim economic news to focus on easing coronavirus lockdown measures, with surprisingly strong Chinese export data adding to the positive vibe. Wall Street was up around 1.5 percent in the late New York morning, a rise comparable to the advances seen across Europe at the closing bell. London stocks were also underpinned by a weaker pound after the Bank of England held rates and kept its stimulus package unchanged, even as it predicted more gloom for the British economy. Asian stock markets closed mixed, while oil prices rallied. China's exports saw a surprise 3.5 percent rise in April, official figures showed Thursday. "Market participants are hoping to see a similar bounce in data for other major economies once lockdown measures are eased," said Fawad Razaqzada at ThinkMarkets. He cautioned, however, that the economic damage from the virus could already be too deep to allow for a quick rebound. But the overall mood was upbeat, particularly in Europe, where several countries are beginning to relax confinement measures. "Continued optimism about the easing of lockdowns has boosted European stock markets," said CMC Markets analyst David Madden. "A number of countries have taken steps to reopen sections of their economies and there is speculation the UK could be loosening restrictions in the next few days." Nevertheless, a slew of monumentally bad data has highlighted the struggle governments face in reigniting economies, with hundreds of millions of people left jobless and countless companies going under or on the brink of insolvency. Germany and France reported slumps in industrial production and Britain said its total economic output would plummet by 14 percent this year. The UK forecast came a day after the European Union warned of a 7.7-percent eurozone contraction in 2020. In the US meanwhile, new claims for unemployment benefits filed by US workers declined slightly last week, but were still a staggering 3.2 million. "Yet markets fail to respond," said Joshua Mahony, Senior Market Analyst at IG. Instead the "dour data" were "swatted away" by investors who preferred to focus on hope for an economic rebound, he said. The dollar rose against its peers following the data. London - FTSE 100: UP 1.4 percent at 5,935.98 points (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 1.4 percent at 10,759.27 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 1.5 percent at 4,501.44 (close) EURO STOXX 50: UP 1.3 percent at 2,880.60 New York - Dow: UP 1.4 percent at 23,999.32 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 19,674.77 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.7 percent at 23,908.63 (close) Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 2,871.52 (close) Brent North Sea crude: UP 3.5 percent at $30.76 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: UP 7.7 percent at $25.84 Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0784 from $1.0795 at 2100 GMT Dollar/yen: UP at 106.46 yen from 106.12 Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2294 from $1.2350 Euro/pound: UP at 87.73 pence from 87.41 pence burs-jh/bp
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