Asian stocks advance after Trump signs $900B aid package

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets rose Monday after President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion economic aid package, helping to reduce uncertainty as governments re-impose travel and business curbs in response to a new coronavirus variant.

Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced as traders returned to work following a three-day Christmas weekend.

Trump signed the measure, which also includes money for other government functions through September, despite expressing frustration that $600 payments to the public weren’t bigger. His signature following last-minute objections helped to clear away uncertainty as reinstated travel and business curbs threaten to weigh on global economic activity.

“The stimulus balloon will allow the markets to navigate better the number of new air pockets showing up on the radar due to the virus’s latest variant,” said Stephen Innes of Axi in a report.

The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.3% to 3,406.69 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo added 0.5% to 26,798.62. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up less than 0.1% at 26,391.20.

In Hong Kong, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced it was expanding a share buyback from $6 billion to $10 billion. Alibaba shares declined 7% following last week's announcement of an anti-monopoly investigation and the suspension of the stock market debut of Ant Group, an online finance platform in which Alibaba owns a 33% stake.

In Seoul, the Kospi rose 0.4% to 2,817.79 while India's Sensex opened up 0.06% at 47,230.55.

Singapore and Jakarta advanced. Australian markets were closed.

On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index gained 0.4% to 3703.06 on Thursday in its last pre-Christmas trading day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 30,199.87. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%, to...