US stocks posted their best week in decades on optimism over a slow down in the spread of the virus and more support from the Fed. The S&P 500 surged 12% and the Dow jumped 13% over the week. Abroad, the FTSE All World Ex US climbed 8.4% for the week. Oil ended the week at $22.76 a barrel down nearly 20% for the week. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose over the week to finish at 0.73%.
New survey data showed Germany is expected to contract 8.9% in the second quarter.
EU finance ministers were unable to come to an agreement on an aid package for the country bloc.
Minutes showed the Fed was extremely alarmed about the direction of the economy during their two emergency meetings driving them to cute the benchmark interest rate to nearly 0%.
6.6 million people filed unemployment insurance over the first week of April bring the total number of applicants for unemployment benefits to close to 17 million since mid March.
The Fed announced a new $2.3 trillion loan program supporting small and midsize businesses, municipalities, and to riskier types of debt that had been previously excluded. They also said they were prepared to expand that program if needed to prevent long lasting damage to the US economy.
The new loan program available to small businesses has been plagued with delays.