Global shares up; many Asian markets closed for holiday

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares rose Tuesday, mirroring broad overnight gains on Wall Street, while many markets in China and elsewhere in Asia were closed for Lunar New Year holidays.

France's CAC 40 jumped 1.2% in early trading to 7,081.90, while Germany's DAX surged 1.3% to 15,669.47. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.9% to 7,528.54. The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up nearly 0.1%. The S&P 500 future inched up less than 0.1%.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 climbed 0.3% to 27,078.48. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5% to 7,006.00.

Sony Corp. stock finished 0.4% higher after it announced its acquisition of Bungie Inc., an independent game publisher based in Bellevue, Washington. Sony Interactive Entertainment is spending $3.6 billion to buy Bungie, the original developer of Xbox-owned Halo. The move escalates the game console competition between Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox.

Wall Street closed a tumultuous January wracked by worries that interest-rate hikes will make everything in markets more challenging. Shares closed higher on Monday but still logged their worst monthly loss since the early days of the pandemic.

The S&P 500 came back from an early dip to close 1.9% higher at 4,515.55. Even so, the benchmark index fell 5.3% in January, its worst month since falling 12.5% in March 2020, when it plunged after the pandemic suddenly shut down the global economy.

The Dow industrials gained 1.2% to 35,131.86. The Nasdaq jumped 3.4% to 14,239.88. Both also ended in the red for January, with the Dow shedding 3.3% and the Nasdaq losing 9%.

The Federal Reserve is about to start withdrawing the tremendous stimulus it’s pumped into the economy and markets since the pandemic began in 2020. Ultra-low rates and other stimulus helped markets recover from the initial shock of the coronavirus pandemic, and then supported stunning gains.

Investors expect the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin raising interest rates in March to fight inflation. But markets have gyrated amid uncertainty about how sharply and how quickly the Fed will move.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude lost 11 cents to $88.04 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained $1.33 to $88.15 per barrel on Monday. Brent crude, the international standard, rose $1.18 to $91.21 per barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 114.82 Japanese yen from 115.13 yen. The euro cost $1.1259, up from $1.1236.