World markets mostly advanced Monday as investors navigated lighter trading in Asia ahead of Lunar New Year holidays, while gold and silver slipped and oil prices also fell. In early European trading, Germany’s DAX, Britain’s FTSE and France’s CAC 40 all rose, signaling a steady start to the week despite mixed signals elsewhere in global markets.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 edged down 0.2% to 56,806.41 after Japan reported that the economy grew more slowly than economists expected in the latest October-December quarter, with growth at an annualized 0.2%. The data increased the likelihood that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi would continue efforts to revive the economy by raising government spending and cutting taxes, Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics wrote in a note.
Trading was thin across parts of the region because stock markets in China, South Korea and Taiwan were closed, while others were operating on shortened schedules for the Lunar New Year. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, in its half-day session, gained 0.5% and closed at 26,705.94, while in Australia the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 8,937.10 and India’s Sensex rose 0.4%.
Ahead of the Presidents Day holiday, U.S. stock futures edged higher, with the S&P 500 up 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.4%. Wall Street had calmed after a sharp drop on Friday that had been tied to worries about artificial intelligence disruptions across industries, which particularly hit software companies.
The outlook for U.S. markets also benefited from a report showing inflation cooled last month, which offered more room for another Federal Reserve interest rate cut. On Friday, the S&P 500 ended up less than 0.1% at 6,836.17, the Dow added 0.1% to 49,500.93, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2% to 22,546.67.
The biggest weight in the S&P 500, Nvidia, fell 2.2% on Friday, while AppLovin rose 6.4% after losing almost a fifth of its value the previous day as investors focused on potential ways AI could disrupt businesses tied to software and other technology-related sectors.
In commodities, gold declined 0.3% to $5,030.30 per ounce and silver fell 1.2% to $77.05. Oil prices also dropped, with U.S. benchmark crude down 34 cents to $62.55 a barrel and Brent crude down 34 cents to $67.41 a barrel. The U.S. dollar was at 153.33 Japanese yen, up from 152.64 yen, while the euro traded at $1.1867, down from $1.1872.