Asia-Pacific stocks fell Friday ahead of the monthly U.S. jobs report, which is expected to guide the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision in November.
Payrolls are expected to rise by 275,000 in September and the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 3.7%, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong
lost 1.27% in the last hour of trading, and the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 2.96%. Japan's Nikkei 225
in Japan fell 0.71% to 27,116.11 and the Topix index dropped 0.82% to 1,906.80. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200
fell 0.8% to 6,762.80.
South Korea's Kospi
lost 0.22% to 2,232.84, while the Kosdaq fell 1.07% to 698.49. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan fell 1.29%. Markets in mainland China remain closed for a holiday.
Overnight in the U.S., major indexes fell - the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 346.93 points, or 1.15%, to 29,926.94. The S&P 500 fell 1.02% to 3,744.52, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.68% to 11,073.31.
"Stocks struggled as markets awaited the highly anticipated U.S. jobs data ... and as comments from Fed officials gave the impression that more was needed," ANZ Research analysts wrote in a Friday note.