Asian stocks higher, many markets closed for Lunar New Year

Shares rose in Asia on Monday, but most markets were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, with Shanghai markets closed for the entire week.

The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo rose 1.1% to 26,852.85, while the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney rose 0.1% to 7,456.90. The gains came after a rally in technology stocks on Friday, which helped to alleviate concerns about the US economy's slowing.

In other trading, New York Mercantile Exchange benchmark crude oil fell 35 cents to $81.29 per barrel in electronic trading. On Friday, it rose $1.03 to $81.64 per barrel.

Brent crude, the international trading benchmark, fell 40 cents to $87.23 per barrel.

The US dollar fell from 129.59 to 129.14 Japanese yen. The euro increased in value to $1.0905 from $1.0868.

The S&P 500 rose 1.9% to 3,972.61 on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 1% to 33,375.49 points. The Nasdaq gained 2.7% to 11,140.43.

Small-cap stocks also performed well. The Russell 2000 index finished 1.7% higher at 1,867.34.

Despite the gains, the benchmark index fell for the first time in three weeks.

Investors cheered another big quarterly increase in Netflix subscribers, which drove much of the gains in technology and communication services stocks.

Gains in technology-related stocks accounted for a sizable portion of the S&P 500′s rally on Friday. Alphabet, Google's parent company, said it was cutting costs by laying off 12,000 employees. Its stock increased by 5.3%.

Netflix reported an increase in subscribers and saw its stock rise 8.5%.

The major indexes started the week in the red largely because of worries that the economy may not be able to avoid a scarring recession. Several reports on the economy have come in weaker than expected, as the full weight of the Federal Reserve’s hikes to interest rates last year start to make their way through the system.

On Friday, Fed Gov. Christopher Waller said he favors just a quarter-point hike on Feb. 1, when the central bank gives its next interest rate policy update. Waller also said that rates are already high enough to be slowing the economy. The remarks could have helped calm rising-rate worries in the market.