Asian shares mostly rose Tuesday, deriving optimism from rising technology stocks on Wall Street, led by Nvidia. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4% in morning trading to 40,248.68. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.

Rising technology stocks helped U.S. indexes recover more of their holiday-season slide that bridged the new year.

A soft finish to 2024 still left stocks with a second straight stellar year. The S&P 500 logged a 23.3% gain, which follows a 24% rise in 2023. The combined gains of more than 53% was the largest two-year percentage jump for the index since year-end 1998,

Asian stocks are mixed after Wall Street snapped out of a spell of holiday season blues, with markets in Tokyo and China declining.

Santa might have a lump of coal for Wall Street this year. Stocks typically enjoy a so-called Santa Claus Rally in the period spanning the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the next.

U.S. equity futures edged higher in early Tuesday trading, while Treasury yields steadied and the dollar slipped, as investors looked to the first of a series of job market data releases that could test the market's early January rally.

Stocks are running in premarket trading on Monday. Here's a look at major indexes as of 8:50 a.m. ET: Nasdaq Futures: Up 205.25 (+.95%) S&P 500 Futures: Up 45.25 (+.76%) Dow Jones Futures: Up 184 (+.43%) The big story in premarket trading is that NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) and chip stocks are up big.