Shares in Asia followed the mood music after gains on Wall Street in Monday trade, with major indexes heading higher.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng (^HSI) finished Monday's session up 1.7%. Meanwhile the SSE Composite (000001.SS) rose a modest 0.1%. Over in Japan, the Nikkei (^N225) advanced 1.2%.

Talks between Chinese officials and the incoming Trump administration have bolstered hopes that Trump's rumoured punishing tariffs will be less severe than thought.

Bitcoin started Monday with a 2.9% price leap, heading past the $107,500 mark to all-time highs. The bump comes amid hope from the crypto industry that Donald Trump will be the first "crypto president", ushering in a new era for lax regulation of digital assets.

Optimism also buoyed ethereum, which saw its price rise almost 5%.

The average price of a house coming to market rose by £5,992 to £366,189 in January, according to online platform Rightmove's (RMV.L) house price index — the largest jump in prices at the start of the year since 2020.

Price rises come alongside a record number of early-bird new sellers coming to market since Boxing Day, giving buyers the highest level of choice at the start of a year since 2015.

Buyer activity is up too — the number of buyers contacting agents about properties for sale since Boxing Day is 9% ahead of last year, and the number of sales being agreed over the same period is up by 11%, Rightmove said.

High buyer choice has contributed to increases in buyer enquiries and sales agreed compared to a year ago, but also means fierce seller competition to attract these new year buyers.

Read more on Yahoo Finance UK

From our US team:

US stocks jumped on Friday amid a tech stock revival as investors assessed a week of key data and earnings reports alongside potential policy shifts under a Trump administration.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained 0.8% while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 1%, coming off a losing day for the major gauges. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) put on 1.5% as Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) shares nudged back into the green.

Markets have turned upbeat as investors take stock of recent days' big bank earnings and inflation readings, which have resuscitated bets on interest-rate cuts. Stocks posted big weekly wins after a major rally on Wednesday, while the 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) pulled back to trade around 4.6% on Friday.

The Dow finished up 3.7 for the week. The S&P recorded a 2.9% gain, while the Nasdaq closed 2.4% ahead of last week.

Hello from London. We're gearing up for another busy day of reporting here at Yahoo as earnings season rolls on and Donald Trump prepares to be inaugurated later this afternoon.

3M (MMM), Capital One (COF) and Bancorp (USB) are reporting results.

Also on the slate: data on UK unemployment and wage growth (key indicators for the Bank of England in setting rates.

Let's get to it.