Investing.com - The Nikkei ended weaker in the morning session Friday following a late profit warning from Sony overnight in light trade with markets in China closed for a public holiday.
Sony Corp Ord (6758.TOK) fell 1.5%, recouping some of its early losses after the company issued a profit warning after the Thursday market close.
The Nikkei 225 fell 0.23% in morning trade. South Korea's KOSPI was down 0.2%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up less than 0.1%
Australia's Q1 PPI data rose 0.9%, compared to expectations for a 0.5% gain. The data is usually ignored by the market because CPI data for Q1 has been released.
Japan's March unemployment rate stood at 3.6% in March, matching expectations and at the lowest level since 3.5% marked in December 1997. Household spending rose 7.2%, far outpacing an expected 1.0% gain in real terms from a year earlier and the first rise in two months after a decline of 2.5% in February.
China is on public holiday, but the rest of the region mostly re-open to mark the final day day of the week.
U.S. stocks traded mixed to lower overnight with the Dow 30 down 0.13%, the S&P 500 index easing 0.01%, while the NASDAQ Composite Composite index rose 0.31%.
The Department of Labor reported earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits last week rose by 14,000 to 344,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised total of 330,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall by 11,000 to 319,000.
Offsetting the disappointing jobless claims figures, the Commerce Department reported earlier that U.S. personal spending rose 0.9% in March from an upwardly revised 0.5% the previous month, beating expectations of 0.6%.
Consumer spending is the single biggest component of U.S. economic growth, accounting for as much as two-thirds of economic activity.
The report added that personal income rose 0.5%, beating expectations for a 0.4% increase.
Separately, the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing PMI rose to 54.9 last month from 53.7 in March, outpacing expectations for a 54.3 reading.
Still, investors shrugged off the largely positive data and jumped to the sidelines ahead of the April jobs report on Friday.
European markets were closed on holiday Thursday.
On Friday, stocks will react to the U.S. April jobs report.
Elsewhere, the U.S. is to issue a separate report on factory orders.