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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are climbing toward more records on Monday ahead of a week packed with potentially market-moving events for Wall Street.

The S&P 500 rose 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 224 points, or 0.5%, as of 2:06 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.7% higher. All are adding to their latest all-time highs set on Friday.

Stocks also rallied in Asia ahead of a meeting on Thursday between the heads of the United States and China. The hope is that the talks could clear rising tensions between the world’s two largest economies and allow the global economy to keep motoring.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there’s “a framework” for U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss at their meeting, while Trump said, “We feel good” about working things out with China.

That’s just one of many things that will need to go right this week in order for the U.S. stock market’s tremendous, record-breaking rally to continue. The S&P 500 has shot up a stunning 37.6% since hitting a low in April, when worries about Trump’s tariffs on China and other countries were at their peak. Besides hopes for easing trade tensions, the rally has also been built on expectations for several more things to happen.

One is that the Federal Reserve will keep cutting interest rates in order to give the slowing job market a boost. The Fed’s next announcement on interest rates is due on Wednesday, and the nearly unanimous expectation among traders is that it will cut the federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point at a second straight meeting.

It’s not a certainty though, because the Fed has also warned it may have to change course if inflation accelerates beyond its still-high level. That’s because low interest rates can make inflation worse.

The latest monthly report on inflation came in slightly better than economists expected, raising hopes, but it may be the final update for a while if the U.S. government’s shutdown continues. That could cloud the forecast for cuts to rates to continue.

Besides low interest rates, another expectation that’s propped up stock prices is the forecast that U.S. companies will continue to deliver solid growth in profits.

Keurig Dr Pepper climbed 7.2% Monday after reporting profit for the latest quarter that matched analysts’ expectations. The company behind Canada Dry and Green Mountain coffee said it benefited from higher prices for K-Cup products, among other things

Some of Wall Street’s most influential stocks are set to report their results this week, including Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft on Wednesday, and Amazon and Apple on Thursday. They’ll need to deliver big growth and justify big spending underway in artificial-intelligence technology.

Worries have been climbing that AI may be in the midst of a bubble, similar to the dot-com bonanza that ended up bursting in 2000. Nvidia’s stock is up 42.3% for the year so far, for example, and Qualcomm soared 12.4% Monday after unveiling AI products for data centers.

Announcements of mergers and buyouts also helped move stocks on Monday. Cadence Bank rose 2% after Huntington Bancshares said it would buy the bank with locations across Texas and the South for $7.4 billion in stock. Huntington fell 3.6%.

Avidity Biosciences leaped 42.3% after Novartis agreed to buy the biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego for $12 billion, after Avidity spins off its early-stage precision cardiology programs.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly in Europe following bigger gains in Asia.

Stocks climbed 1.2% in Shanghai and 1% in Hong Kong. They rose even more in Tokyo, where the Nikkei 225 jumped 2.5%, and in Seoul, where South Korea’s Kospi rallied 2.6%.

The Nikkei 225 topped the 50,000 level for the first time as opinion polls show Japan’s newly installed Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi enjoying high levels of public support for her market-friendly policies. Takaichi favors raising spending on defense, and that has boosted prices of stocks in major defense contractors, such as Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which jumped 9% Monday.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 3.99% from 4.02% late Friday.

All the optimism flowing through financial markets helped knock down the price of gold. The metal’s price has stalled after it nearly touched $4,400 per ounce last week, when it set its latest record. It’s dropped back toward $4,000, but it’s still up more than 50% for the year so far.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A big-screen adaptation of the popular anime “Chainsaw Man” has beaten out a biopic about the Boss and the horror sequel “Black Phone 2” to top the North American box office.

It’s the latest win for an anime film, less than two months after “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle” debuted to a record $70 million, setting a new high mark for anime in theaters.

“Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc” claimed the No. 1 spot by earning $17.25 million at theaters in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, according to Comscore. “Black Phone 2” fell to No. 2 with $13 million in its second week.

Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” the first biopic about the rock legend, earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million respectively. “Tron: Ares” rounded out the top five with $4.9 million at the box office, according to studio-reported estimates released by Comscore.

“Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is a self-contained movie adaptation of the popular manga series about a demon hunter whose arms and head can transform into chain saws. Part love story, part hack-and-saw adventure, the movie is a self-contained story based on the manga series created by Tatsuki Fujimoto and adapted into an anime series in 2022.

It’s another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released “Infinity Castle” last month.

Globally, “Chainsaw Man” has earned an estimated $108,000 so far.

“Deliver Me From Nowhere” stars Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen, focusing on the Boss’ struggles while creating his “Nebraska” album, released in 1982. White had to learn to play the guitar and had little singing experience before taking on playing Springsteen, who was involved in the production.

The film earned a B+ score on Cinemascore, while “Chainsaw Man” scored an A from audiences.

“Black Phone 2” stars Ethan Hawke and Mason Thames in the sequel to hit 2021 original. It’s now earned nearly $50 million domestically and more than $80 million worldwide.

“Regretting You,” a tragicomedy starring Dave Franco, Alison Williams, Scott Eastwood and Thames, is the latest adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel.

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc,” $17.3 million

2. “Black Phone 2,” $13 million

3. “Regretting You,” $12.9 million

4. “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” $9.1 million

5. “Tron: Ares,” $4.9 million

6. “Good Fortune,” $3.1 million

7. “Shelby Oaks,” $2.4 million

8. “One Battle After Another,” $2.3 million

9. “Roofman,” $2 million

10. “ParaNorman (Remastered),” $991,910

Flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility, the Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday, when the agency also reported staffing-related delays in Chicago, Washington and Newark, New Jersey.

The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed and canceled in the coming days as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown.

During an appearance on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures,” Duffy said more controllers were calling in sick as money worries compound the stress of an already challenging job.

“Just yesterday, ... we had 22 staffing triggers. That’s one of the highest that we have seen in the system since the shutdown began. And that’s a sign that the controllers are wearing thin,” he said.

The FAA said planes headed for Los Angeles were held at their originating airports starting at 11:42 a.m. Eastern time, and the agency lifted the ground stop at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.

The hold did not appear to cause continuing problems at LAX; according to flight tracking website FlightAware, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field Airport saw a much bigger share of late arrivals due to what the FAA said were weather and equipment issues.

Too few air traffic controllers per shift also caused takeoff and arrival disruptions Sunday at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport and Teteboro Airport, and at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Meyers, Florida, according to the FAA.

On Sunday evening, the FAA also slowed traffic into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Chicago O’Hare International Airport because of traffic controller staffing.