HONG KONG - Asian markets struggled into the weekend on Friday following a bland lead from Wall Street as a mixed bag of US data did little to move the needle on expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week.
Investors have in recent sessions struggled to match last week's healthy gains fuelled by comments from central bank officials indicating their preference for a further easing of monetary policy.
However, optimism has been helped by reports reinforcing the view that the jobs market is softening, including payrolls firm ADP saying more than 30,000 posts were lost in November.
And while figures Thursday on jobless claims and layoffs came in slightly better than expected, markets have priced the chances of a rate cut Wednesday at around 90 percent.
Focus is now on the release later Friday of the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation, with a below-forecast reading tipped to ramp up hopes for several more rate reductions in 2026.
Data on income and spending is also due to come out.
Still, debate continues to swirl over the bank's plans for the next 12 months as inflation remains stubbornly above target.
Wall Street ended on a tepid note, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slightly higher but the Dow marginally off.
Tokyo shed more than one percent, having jumped more than two percent Thursday, while Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Wellington were also off. Sydney, Seoul, Taipei, Manila and Jakarta edged up.
In corporate news, Chinese artificial intelligence chip maker Moore Threads Technology soared more than 450 percent on its debut in Shanghai after raising $1.13 billion in an initial public offering.