Earlier this morning SPI futures were pointing to the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) finishing the week with another day in the red.
But a potentially major development over in the United States looks set to change that.
At the time of writing US futures are pointing to the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq index rocketing higher during Friday night trade.
This is quite likely to rub off on the local market and could see the ASX 200 finish the week on a high.
What happened?
Investors in the United States have responded very positively to news that Gilead Sciences' antiviral drug Remdesivir appears to be delivering promising results in treating COVID-19.
According to CNBC, details have leaked from the Remdesivir phase 3 clinical trial being undertaken by The University of Chicago.
Those details reveal that most of its patients had "rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms" and were discharged in under a week.
According to STAT News, the University of Chicago's infectious disease specialist Kathleen Mullane said: "The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We've only had two patients perish."
A positive development but caution is warranted.
While this is clearly a potentially very positive development for the world as a whole, investors may want to be cautious.
Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, told CNBC: "This is obviously good news. Of course, we've heard a few other pieces of good news like this recently and they didn't pan-out as well as people had hoped. The big question is whether it's going to be enough to help the economy 're-open' more quickly than people are thinking right now."
Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, believes an effective treatment would be a big win for the economy.
He said: "An effective treatment is a huge deal and would create a path to open the economy and resume normal 'social activities' way sooner than a vaccine. A treatment is safer and more scalable because it is only given to people who need to be treated."
