New York/Hong Kong/London (CNN Business) Global stocks and US futures rocketed higher on Friday despite data showing an unprecedented economic slowdown in China caused by the coronavirus and a mounting death toll from the pandemic in the United States.

Nikkei N225 Kospi KOSPI Hang Seng Index HSI Shanghai Composite SHCOMP Japan'sand South Korea'seach gained more than 3% as investors brushed off the official Chinese data revealing that the world's second largest economy contracted by 6.8% in the first three months of the year. Hong Kong'sadded 1.5% and therose 0.7%.

The plunge is the worst for a single quarter that China has recorded since it started publishing such figures in 1992. It's also the first time China's economy has shrunk since 1976, when Communist Party leader Mao Zedong's death ended a decade of social and economic tumult.

FTSE 100 UKX CAC 40 CAC40 DAX DAX European markets opened sharply higher, with theincreasing 2.4% in London. France'sand Germany'seach gained nearly 3%.

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