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TOKYO (AP) -- Asian shares gained Tuesday, mirroring broad overnight gains on Wall Street, while trading in China and most other regional markets 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 COVID.
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 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.
"There's systematic buying that goes on at the end of a really bad month like January, and that's certainly taken place over the last day or two," said Scott Lander, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments.
The month's heaviest losses have concentrated on parts of the stock market seen as the most expensive. Much of the focus has been on high-growth technology stocks, which were absolute stars of the pandemic amid expectations they can grow regardless of the economy.
Tech stocks in the S&P 500 rose 2.7% Monday but the sector ended the month down 6.9%. The monthly drop was far deeper for tech stocks like chipmaker Nvidia, which jumped 7.2% Monday, but posted a 16.7% skid for January.
The stock market tends to struggle to adjust to higher rates. When bonds pay more in interest, investors feel less need to reach for stocks and other riskier investments.