World Shares Rally After Japan Election02/09 04:48

   World shares advanced and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 share index jumped as much as 
5% to a record on Monday after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's 
governing party secured a two-thirds supermajority in a parliamentary election.

   BANGKOK (AP) -- World shares advanced and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 share index 
jumped as much as 5% to a record on Monday after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae 
Takaichi's governing party secured a two-thirds supermajority in a 
parliamentary election.

   In early European trading, Germany's DAX gained 0.6% to 24,864.59, while the 
CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.2% higher, to 8,288.06. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.3% 
at 10,399.61.

   U.S. futures edged higher after the U.S. stock market roared back on Friday 
as technology stocks recovered much of their losses from earlier in the week 
and bitcoin halted its plunge. The future for the S&P 500 added 0.1%, while 
that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2%.

   On Friday, the S&P 500 rallied 2% for its best day since May. The Dow 
industrials soared 2.5%, topping the 50,000 level for the first time. The 
Nasdaq composite leaped 2.2%.

   The combination of a rebound in tech shares, Wall Street's rally and other 
upbeat news lifted shares early Monday.

   In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 closed 3.9% higher at 56,363.94. Earlier in the day 
the benchmark hit a new intraday record of 57,337.07.

   The dollar weakened slightly against the Japanese yen, trading at 156.71 
yen, down from 157.10 yen late Friday.

   The landslide election victory gives Takaichi a much stronger mandate to 
pursue market-friendly policies.

   NHK, citing results of vote counts, said Takaichi's Liberal Democratic 
Party, or LDP, alone secured 316 seats by early Monday, comfortably surpassing 
a 261-seat absolute majority in the 465-member lower house, the more powerful 
of Japan's two-chamber parliament. That marks a record since the party's 
foundation in 1955 and surpasses the previous record of 300 seats won in 1986 
by late Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.

   "So overall, as the LDP has gone from a very weak government that really 
couldn't do anything to an extremely strong government now with the 
supermajority of the lower house, they really could call the shots," said Neil 
Newman, managing director and head of strategy at Astris Advisory Japan.

   Takaichi's first major task when the lower house reconvenes in mid-February 
is to work on a budget bill, delayed by the election, to fund economic measures 
to address rising costs and sluggish wages.

   "Japan just delivered the kind of election result markets instinctively 
embrace because it removes the one thing traders price at a premium: political 
ambiguity," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

   "Politically, the win hands Prime Minister Takaichi freedom of movement and 
removes the need to bargain every decision down to the lowest common 
denominator," he said.

   Other markets across Asia also rallied.

   In Seoul, the Kospi gained 4.1%, to 5,298.04, buoyed by strong buying of 
tech shares.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 1.8% to 27,027.16 and the Shanghai 
Composite index rose 1.4% to 4,123.09. Taiwan's Taiex gained 2%.

   In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 surged 1.9% to 8,870.10.

   Gains for computer chip companies helped drive Wall Street's widespread 
rally on Friday. Nvidia jumped 7.8% and Broadcom climbed 7.1%.

   The S&P 500 still fell to its third losing week in the last four. Apart from 
worries about spending by Big Tech companies, which are Wall Street's most 
influential stocks, concerns about AI potentially stealing customers from 
software companies also hurt the market. Software stocks were hit particularly 
hard after AI firm Anthropic released free tools to automate things like legal 
services.

   In other dealings early Monday, bitcoin gained 1% to trade just below 
$70,000. A weekslong plunge sent it to close to $60,000 late Thursday, more 
than halfway below its record price set in October.

   Prices in the metals market have calmed a bit following their own wild 
swings. Gold rose 1.4% to $5048.90 per ounce, while silver added 6.2% to $81.64.

   U.S. benchmark crude oil shed 60 cents to $62.95 per barrel. Brent crude, 
the international standard, gave up 60 cents to $67.45 per barrel.

   The euro rose to $1.1866 from $1.1814.