U.S. stocks fell Friday on worries that good news on the job market may be too good and prove to be bad for Wall Street by keeping inflation and interest rates high. The S&P 500 tumbled 1.5% to close its fourth losing week in the last five.

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. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slid 0.

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,