Wall Street opens higher before a big week of central bank meetings

NEW YORK (AP) Stocks open higher on Wall Street ahead of a busy week for central banks around the world that could dictate the next direction of interest rates. The S&P 500 was up 1% in early trading Monday, after posting its first consecutive weekly losses since October. It is still close to its all-time high set early last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 133 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.5%. Treasury yields have remained relatively stable. The Federal Reserve will announce its latest interest rate decision on Wednesday. The central banks of Japan and England are also meeting this week.

THIS IS A LATEST UPDATE. Earlier AP story follows below.

Wall Street drifted higher Monday morning, ahead of this week's Federal Reserve policy decision.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.7% before the bell, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.2%.

Nasdaq futures jumped more than 1% after the exchange said a connectivity issue caused some orders to be canceled. Nasdaq announced shortly after 7 a.m. Eastern Time that the issue had been resolved after more than two hours of disruption.

Google parent Alphabet rose 5.5% before the bell, following reports that the tech giant is in talks with Apple to license Gemini to the iPhone maker. Gemini is Alphabet's generative AI program package.

Wall Street has just experienced its second consecutive week of decline after several reports showing that inflation, although slowing overall, remains stubborn.

Inflation remains Wall Street's top concern amid hopes the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates. The Fed sharply raised interest rates starting in 2022 in an effort to bring inflation back to its 2% target. Consumer inflation reached 9.1% in 2022.

A report on consumer price last week, inflation remained stubborn, reaching 3.2% in February compared to 3.1% in January. Another report on wholesale price also showed that inflation remained higher than Wall Street expected.

Other reports last week showed some slowing in the economy, boosting hopes of a continued slowdown in inflation in the long term.

The rally in stocks that began in October has mostly stalled this month as investors question the direction of inflation, the Fed and the economy.

Fed officials will give their latest forecasts on Wednesday for the evolution of interest rates this year, following their last policy meeting. Traders are still leaning toward a rate cut in June, according to CME Group data. The Fed's key rate remains at its highest level since 2001.

In Europe at midday, Germany's DAX gained 0.3% and the FTSE 100 in London edged up 0.2%, as did the CAC 40 in Paris.

Chinese data Results for January-February were mixed, with real estate investment falling while other indicators showed improvement.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index jumped 2.7% to 39,740.44. Markets await the Bank of Japan's decision on Tuesday whether or not to raise its benchmark interest rate for the first time in 17 years. Since 2016, the rate has remained at minus 0.1%.

Signs that employers are considering big wage increases appear to have pushed the central bank to finally abandon the massive monetary easing used for many years to try to spur growth in a country where the population is shrinking and aging rapidly.

Shares of Nissan Motor Co. jumped 4.1% and shares of Honda Motor Co. rose 2.7% after the close. two car manufacturers agreed on a strategic partnership in the field of electric vehicles.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged up 0.1% to 16,737.12, and the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1% to 3,084.93.

Shares of Dongfeng Motor Group jumped 17% after reports that China is considering new policies to further boost its fast-growing electric vehicle sector.

Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.1% to 7,675.80, and South Korea's Kospi rose 0.7% to 2,685.84.

In India, the Sensex gained 0.3% and in Bangkok, the SET rose 0.1%.

In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil gained 45 cents to $81.49 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 39 cents to $85.73 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar was unchanged against the Japanese yen at 149.03 yen. The euro costs $1.0904, up from $1.0887.

Wall Street closed out its second straight week of losses on Friday, giving back some of the gains that helped propel the stock market to a record high earlier this week.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%. The Nasdaq Composite Index ended down 1%.