(30 April 2020)DAILY MARKET BRIEF 1:Sentiment boosted by Gilead and Q1 tech results.

<p>US and global equities are boosted by positive news from Gilead’s remdesivir trials to treat Covid-19 and solid results from Microsoft and Facebook as expected. In fact, stay-home environment benefited to Microsoft’s Team, where the daily active users rose by 75 million. Not quite bad, when we take into account that the latest US surveys hint that many employers consider offering permanent remote-working jobs in the close future, and the coronavirus experience will certainly lead to a new way of doing business. Bingo.</p>
<p>Facebook on the other hand revealed strong results, but voiced concerns about weakening advertisement revenues, as consumer cyclical businesses, led by travel and leisure, cut back on their marketing spending in March.</p>
<p>The Dow and S&amp;P500 closed 2.21% and 2.66% higher respectively, as Nasdaq led gains with 3.57% advance on Wednesday.</p>