Investing.com - Shares in Asia were narrowly mixed with U.S. jobs data in focus along with a key policy-setting meeting in China.
In China, shares gained ahead of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress starting Saturday. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.23%, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was up 0.68%.
The Nikkei 225 edged down 0.02%, while the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.36%.
In Japan overtime pay for January fell 1.30% year-on-year with a 0.80% rise in the previous month. Also in Japan average cash earnings gained 0.4%, more than the expected 0.2% rise.
In Australia, retail sales for January rose 0.3%, less than the 0.4% month-on-month gain expected.
"Retail sales in Australia in January were slightly weaker than expected and suggest that consumption growth may have softened at the start of the year. Nonetheless, there is little evidence that the turmoil in financial markets is prompting households to adjust their behaviour much," Capital Economics said in a note to clients
"The 0.3% m/m rise in retail sales was slightly weaker than the consensus forecast of a 0.4% m/m rise, but was in line with our own expectations. At the least it suggests that the stagnation in December was probably a one-off rather than the start of a major slowdown."
Overnight, U.S. stocks closed slightly higher on Thursday on a rare session devoid of volatility, as investors digested a wave of disappointing economic data on the final session before the release of February's domestic jobs report.
Equities hit session-lows after Markit said its Purchasing Managers' Index for the U.S. services sector fell 0.5 to 49.7 in final reading for February, the lowest level since the shutdown of the federal government in 2013. Within the report, non-manufacturing employment dropped 2.4% to 49.7, potentially suggesting a lower than expected reading in Friday's report.
The Labor Department is expected to report that nonfarm payrolls rose by 190,000 last month, following an increase of 151,000 a month earlier. Analysts also forecast that the unemployment rate will remain unchanged at 4.9%, a month after tumbling to its lowest level in eight years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 44.58 or 0.26% to 16,943.90, while trading at its narrowest range all year as market players await the critical report.
The NASDAQ Composite index inched up 4.00 or 0.09% to 4,707.42, while the S&P 500 Composite index added 6.95 or 0.35% to close at 1,993.40.
For the session, eight of 10 sectors closed in the green, as stocks in the Energy, Consumer Goods and Financials sectors led. The Dow Jones Transportation Average surged 84.92 or 1.13% to 7,602.09, reaching its highest level in a year.