Investing.com - Asian shares were mostly higher on Friday as investors noted the ousting of South Korea's president and traded cautious ahead of U.S. jobs data.
The benchmark Kospi gained 0.17% after the Constitutional Court upheld a parliament vote made late last year to impeach Park. She will now leave the office immediately and snap elections must be held within 60 days for her replacement.
Ahead, Friday's nonfarm payrolls data is expected to show 190,000 jobs were added in the U.S. private and public sectors in February with the data seen key to cement expectations of a Fed rate hike next week.
In China, the Shanghai composite eased 0.03%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.08%.
China's Fosun Pharmaceuticals is holding early-stage talks with buyout funds including CVC about a potential joint bid for German generic drugmaker Stada, Reuters reported. Fosun Pharma shares were up 0.86%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 1.25% as the yen weakened against the greenback. Toshiba shares plunged 4% during early trade before sliding back to trade up 1.46% on concerns over news that Toshiba's U.S. subsidiary Westinghouse hired bankruptcy attorneys to consider Chapter 11 filing as an option to help with a multi-billion dollar write-down.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.56%.
Overnight, U.S. equities closed mostly flat on Thursday, as weaker than expected initial jobless claims weighed on upside momentum while energy stocks lagged.
Energy shares fell after crude prices tumbled for a second straight day to settle at $49.28, the lowest price since November. On the economic data front, The U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday, initial jobless claims increased by 20,000 to 243,000 in the week ending March 4 from the previous week’s total of 223,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 12,000 to 235,000 last week.
In what was a subdued day on Wall Street, investors anxiously awaited nonfarm payrolls for February (due to be released on Friday), viewed as a critical barometer of the U.S. economy and represents the final key economic data point ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on March 14-15.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.01% higher at 20,858. The S&P 500 gained 0.08% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.02% to close at 5,838. The Dow avoided a fourth day of losses.