Asia shares gain, mirroring broad overnight gains on Wall Street

Tokyo: Asian shares gained Tuesday, mirroring broad overnight gains on Wall Street, while trading in China and most other regional markets was closed for Lunar New Year holidays. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 edged up 0.5% in morning trading to 27,139.89. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to 6,996.80. Wall Street closed a tumultuous January wracked by worries that interest-rate hikes will make everything in markets more challenging. Shares closed higher but still logged their worst monthly loss since the early days of the pandemic.

Investors expect the Federal Reserve to begin raising interest rates in March to fight inflation. Ultra-low rates and other stimulus helped markets recover from the initial shock of the coronavirus pandemic, and then supported stunning gains. 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 Jones Industrial Average 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. But uncertainty about how sharply and how quickly the Fed will move has helped cause severe swings on Wall Street.