Asian shares rise on back of Wall Street rally

Shares rose Monday in Asia after last week’s strong close on Wall Street snapped a three-week losing streak.

Many regional markets were closed for holidays, while Tokyo and Sydney advanced. Oil prices declined.

Investors are watching for U.S. inflation figures and Chinese economic data this week.

The U.S. Labor Department will release its report on consumer prices for August on Tuesday and a report on wholesale prices on Wednesday. On Thursday, Wall Street will get an update on retail sales for August.

Coronavirus cases are still casting a shadow in China, where about 65 million Chinese were under lockdown as of last week despite just 1,248 new cases of domestic transmission, mostly asymptomatic, being reported on Sunday.

“All in all, the lower-for-longer growth picture remains the theme for China," Yeap Jun Rong of IG said in a commentary.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 1.2% to 28,546.09 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney surged 1.2% to 6,973.60. Taiwan's benchmark gained 1.6%. Markets in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul were closed for holidays.

On Friday, the S&P 500 closed 1.5% higher at 4,067.36, its third straight increase, and ended with a 3.7% gain for the week. That makes it the benchmark index's best week going back to July.

Big gains for technology companies pushed the Nasdaq composite to a 2.1% gain, at 12,112.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2% to 32,151.71. Both indexes also notched their first weekly gain in four weeks.

Smaller company stocks also notched solid gains. The Russell 2000 index jumped 1.9% to 1,882.85.

Those gains punctuated a holiday-shortened week of trading on Wall Street during which the market regained some of the ground it lost after a mid-August slump that wiped away the much of the gains from a mid-summer rally.

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