World shares rally and Japan's Nikkei 225 jumps after a big victory for
PM Takaichi's ruling party
[February 09, 2026] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
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.
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A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's
Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo.
(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
 “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.
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AP videojournalist Mayuko Ono in Tokyo contributed.
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