Asian shares were mostly higher on Friday as investors hoped US jobs data due later might sway the Federal Reserve to slow its current aggressive pace of interest rate hikes over the coming months.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.56 per cent, riding a strong Wall Street close overnight. Japan's Nikkei was up 1.2 per cent, and shares in Seoul were up 0.46 per cent, while Australia's resource-heavy index was up 0.79 per cent.
European STOXX 50 futures rose 0.76 per cent.
Markets in China, Hong Kong and the UK are closed for public holidays.
Overnight, tech stocks led a rally on Wall Street, lifting the S&P500 1.84 per cent, the Nasdaq Composite 2.68 per cent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1.29 per cent.
On Thursday, the ADP National Employment Report showed US payrolls rising at a slower-than-expected pace last month.
Investors are now looking to the US Labor Department’s comprehensive jobs report, due later on Friday, for confirmation of a slowdown in the employment market, which could convince the Fed to go slow on interest rate hikes for the rest of the year.
"For equities right now, anything that might be viewed as capping the Fed’s tightening could be viewed as supportive," said ING's Asia head of research Rob Carnell.
"So, therefore, weak macro data becomes positive for stocks."
Economists expect about 3,25,000 jobs were added last month in the United States and reckon unemployment ticked lower to 3.5 per cent.
"Any deviation from these figures that shows the labour market hanging together better than this might well be negative for equities and vice versa," Carnell said.
Inflation is the biggest worry for the Fed and global policymakers. Fed officials have said that US interest rates would likely continue to be raised aggressively unless inflation moderates.
"Front-end rate hike pressure that had built the day prior on robust economic data immediately eased off after a weaker than expected May ADP employment print, suggesting things are cooling off," said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management.
Markets have locked in consecutive 50-basis-point Fed hikes in June and July but the dollar has been pushed around this week by uncertainty about what happens after that.
The US dollar currency index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was at 101.770, pausing a rally earlier in the week.
The yen has been kept under pressure by super-low interest rates in Japan, and was last steady at 129.80 per dollar, having lost 2 per cent on the greenback this week.
US Treasury yields were mixed ahead of the non-farm payrolls data.
The benchmark 10-year yield was at 2.9204 per cent while the 2-year yield, which tends to be sensitive to US rate expectations, was down at 2.6484 per cent.
Oil prices were unchanged after US crude inventories fell amid high demand, even as oil-producing countries OPEC+ agreed to boost production. Brent futures were at $117.17 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude stood at $116.34.
