Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in the early deals on Friday following the lackluster cues overnight from Wall Street and on caution ahead of the release of the closely-watched US jobs data later in the day, in addition to the Italian referendum and elections in Austria this weekend. The US Labor Department is scheduled to release its monthly employment report for November today. Employment is expected to increase by 170,000 jobs in November after climbing by 161,000 jobs in October, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.9 percent. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei share average was poised for a weekly gain but dipped as investors locked in gains ahead of US jobs data later in the session, with losses kept in check as higher Japanese yields lifted financial shares. Among the other Asian markets, Shanghai, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan are all lower. Bucking the trend, Indonesia and Malaysia are edging higher.
Nikkei 225 dipped 184.42 points or 1.00% to 18,328.70, Straits Times dropped 4.39 points or 0.15% to 2,924.19, Hang Seng declined 265.63 points or 1.16% to 22,612.60, KOSPI Index contracted 15.69 points or 0.79% to 1,968.06, Taiwan Weighted decreased 63.08 points or 0.68% to 9,200.45, and Shanghai Composite was down by 25.64 points or 0.78% to 3,247.67.
On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI added 1.47 points or 0.09% to 1,627.91, and Jakarta Composite was up by 9.05 points or 0.17% to 5,207.81.