U.S. stock futures, The Japanese benchmark was down

U.S. stock futures ESc1 were down between 0.2 and 0.3 percent in Asian trade. The Japanese benchmark was down 1.1 percent for the first quarter.

Japan's Nikkei .N225 reversed gains to close down 0.8 percent as markets digested data that showed Japanese core consumer prices rose 0.2 percent in February. While that is the fastest annual pace in nearly two years, household spending and consumer inflation remained subdued when the effect of rising energy costs was stripped out.

The South African rand dropped to a two-month low after President Jacob Zuma sacked and replaced both the finance and deputy finance ministers in a cabinet reshuffle after days of speculation that has rocked the country's markets and currency.

The weakened rand saw the dollar up 1.7 percent at 13.5098 rand ZAR=, on track to end the week almost 9 percent higher.

Overnight, all three major Wall Street indexes closed about 0.3 percent higher after fourth-quarter annualized growth in U.S. gross domestic product was revised up from the previously reported figure.
The upbeat data also helped lift the dollar.

The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six peers, rose 0.1 percent to 100.54, after hitting a two-week high on Thursday. Despite this week's gains - it is up almost 1.7 percent since Monday's four-month low - the greenback is set to end the quarter 1.6 percent lower.

The dollar was steady at 111.885 yen JPY= after Thursday's 0.9 percent jump, but is heading for a 4.2 percent quarterly decline.

Markets are looking to U.S. personal consumption data for February later on Friday, a measure of potential inflation watched by the Federal Reserve.