Stocks rise at the start of a week chock full of reports on the economy

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is rising at the start of a week full of economic reports that could drive where interest rates, and thus stock prices, go. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% in early trading Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 150 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.4%. Stocks that got swept up in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology held a bit steadier following some big drops last week. Nvidia rose 1.5%. The government releases its delayed jobs report for November on Tuesday, and consumer inflation data comes out on Thursday. European indexes were higher and Asian markets closed mostly lower.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares opened higher in Europe after a retreat Monday in Asia following Wall Street’s worst day in three weeks. The price of bitcoin sank as traders braced for an interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan, expected later in the week.

Germany’s DAX gained 0.3% to 24,254.58 and the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.8% to 8,131.56. Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.6% to 9,711,10.

The futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.4% higher.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index shed 1.3% to 50,168.11 after a quarterly “tankan” survey of big manufacturers by the central bank showed a slight improvement in sentiment among such businesses. The measure of those expressing optimism rose to 15 from 14 in the last quarter, the highest level in four years, the central bank said.

The index shows the percentage of companies reporting positive conditions minus the percentage reporting unfavorable ones.

Analysts said the trade agreement with Washington that took U.S. tariffs on Japanese exports to 15% instead of the 25% President Donald Trump had earlier threatened has relieved uncertainty and improved the outlook for automakers and other exporters.

While the overall survey showed improvement, forecasts for the next quarter were less positive. Also, the positive results from the BOJ survey has reinforced the belief it will push ahead with a 0.25 percentage point rate hike that would take the key lending rate to 0.75%.

Higher rates are expected to draw investment back into Japan, sapping demand for alternatives such as cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin’s price slipped below $88,000 early Monday from about $92,000, according to CoinDesk. It recovered to just under $90,000 later in the day.

Elsewhere in Asia, Chinese markets fell after the government reported weak investment figures in the latest signal that demand in the world’s second largest economy remains weak.

The government reported that investment in fixed assets such as factory equipment and other infrastructure fell 2.6% in November from a year earlier, implying that such investments dropped 11.1% year-on-year in the first 11 months of the year.

Retail sales rose 4% in January-November from a year earlier, while factory output climbed 4.8%.

The report followed a high-level meeting of China’s Communist Party leadership last week that yielded no major policy shifts, and a pledge to continue to try to boost consumer spending and investment needed to drive higher domestic demand.

“Policy support should help drive a partial recovery in the coming months, but this probably won’t prevent China’s growth from remaining weak across 2026 as a whole,” Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng declined 1.3% to 25,628.88. The Shanghai Composite index gave back 0.6% to 3,867.92.

The Kospi in South Korea dropped 1.8%, to 4,090.59.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.7% to 8,640.60 and Taiwan’s benchmark lost 1.2%. India’s Sensex was little changed.

On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 1.1% from its all-time high for its worst day in three weeks. Weakness in tech stocks yanked the Nasdaq composite down by a market-leading 1.7%, and the Dow shed 0.5%.

Artificial intelligence heavyweight Broadcom dragged the market lower and tumbled 11.4% even though the chip company reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Analysts called the performance solid, and CEO Hock Tan said strong 74% growth in AI semiconductor revenue helped lead the way.

The drop added to worries about the AI boom that flared a day before, when Oracle plunged nearly 11% despite likewise reporting a bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Chip maker Nvidia fell 3.3%, while Oracle fell another 4.5%.

In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 6 cents to $57.50 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 8 cents to $61.20 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 155.01 Japanese yen from 155.92 yen late Friday. The euro rose to $1.1742 from $1.1739.