Asian Stock Market News

Asian equities followed Wall Street’s gains overnight and edged higher on Friday while the dollar’s advance slowed ahead of the U.S. jobs report due later in the session.

The nonfarm payrolls report is the last before the U.S. Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting and may influence the timing of the Fed’s rate hike. 

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.3 percent.

Australian shares added 0.15 percent while South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 gave back earlier gains to dip 0.2 percent. Japan's Nikkei .N225 climbed 0.2 percent. 

Chinese shares gained after the private Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers index showed the country’s August manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in six months. 

Shanghai .SSEC was up 0.4 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI rose 0.3 percent. 

Wall Street shares closed higher overnight as investors responded to strong economic data and drew some cautious hope from the Trump administration’s latest promises for long-awaited details of a tax reform plan.

U.S. consumer spending rose slightly less than expected in July and annual inflation advanced at its slowest pace in more than 1-1/2 years, diminishing expectations of an interest rate increase in December.