us stocks started the new quarter higher a tentative sign of relief for investors after a long and punishing stretch of down days the dow jones industrial average climbed 76538 points or 27 to 2949089 on monday the sp 500 added 9281 points or 26 to 367843 and the nasdaq composite rose 23982 points or 23 to 1081543 both the sp and nasdaq notched their best first day of any quarter since 2009 according to dow jones market data the broadbased gains came after stocks closed out a losing week month and quarter on friday when all three indexes closed at their lowest levels of the year japanese stocks were broadly higher led by sharp gains in trading companies as concerns ease somewhat about the feds tightening following signs of cooling in the us economy investors were focusing on any developments over the war in ukraine the nikkei stock average was up 20 at 2673858 south koreas benchmark kospi rose 21 to 220013 in early trade led by gains in index heavyweight samsung electronics and other largecap stocks foreign investors were net buyers driving the strong rebound from a recent selloff some were hunting for bargains kiwoom securities analysts said samsung electronics rose 43 on its plan to advance its chipmaking technology while internet giant naver dropped 36 after planning to acquire us ecommerce platform poshmark markets in mainland china and hong kong are closed tuesday for a holiday asian currencies were mixed in the morning asian session amid mild usd weakness usd has fallen back moderately as treasury yields have fallen and risk sentiment has improved said alvin t tan head of asia forex strategy at rbc capital markets in an email however caution should continue to prevail in the near term given that the us nonfarm payrolls report is due friday tan added usdkrw was little changed at 143400 audusd fell 02 to 06504 and usdsgd was down 01 at 14308 gold edged lower in the morning asian session but prices were likely to be supported by lower treasury yields which enhance the appeal of the noninterestbearing precious metal analysts said the weakerthanexpected isms index of us manufacturing activity released overnight pushed treasury yields lower and has raised the possibility of a lower fed rateincrease trajectory which was positive for the precious metal said stephen innes managing partner of spi asset management spot gold was down 01 at 169727oz oil prices were higher in the morning asia session buoyed by the prospects of a potential output cut by opec at its meeting wednesday expectations remained high that the group will deliver the biggest reduction in crudeoil production since the beginning of the covid19 pandemic oanda said the gathering would be the groups first inperson meeting since 2020 which means they were likely to go big and reduce production by more than 1 million barrels a day oanda added frontmonth wti futures were 01 higher at 8369bbl frontmonth brent futures were up 03 at 8912bbl