Investing.com - Japanese stocks moved higher Thursday on a softer yen in muted trade in Asia with other bourses edging up ahead of Friday's U.S. labor report.
The Nikkei 225 ended the morning up 0.87%, but the Shanghai Composite edged down 0.15%, while the Hang Seng index gained 0.39%.
Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up slightly after a fairly busy data day.
Australia's February retail sales rose 0.2% month-on-month compared to an expectation of a 0.3% gain. The country's February trade balance however widened to A$1.2 billion, compared to an expectation fo A$850 million.
Earlier in the session, AI Group said Australia's services sector index fell 6.3 points to 48.9 in March, dropping into contraction territory for the first time in two years.
Later Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens said there are promising early signs that Australia can manage the downward phase of the resources investment boom into domestic led consumption without resorting to further extensiove monetary measures with the cash rate now at a record low 2.5%.
"We have, by and large, managed the first part and there are some promising early signs that things may turn out not too badly in the second," Stevens said.
In China today, the CFLP service PMI fell to 54.5 in March from 55 in February. The HSBC version of the service PMI however rose to 51.9 in March from 51 in February.
In corporate news, shares in National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB.ASX) fell 0.9% after the lender's chief executive Cameron Clyne said that he will step down in August for personal reasons. He will be replaced by Andrew Thorburn, head of the bank's Bank of New Zealand subsidiary.
Overnight, U.S. stocks rose after investors applauded private-sector jobs data as well as solid factory orders numbers.
The Dow 30 rose 0.24%, the S&P 500 rose 0.29%, while the Nasdaq rose 0.20%.
Payroll processing firm ADP reported earlier that the U.S. private sector added 191,000 jobs in March, just shy of expectations for a 195,000 reading.
February’s figure, however, was revised up to a gain of 178,000 from a previously reported increase of 139,000, and the overall report bolstered the dollar by fueling hopes Friday's official nonfarm payrolls data will come in near or better than consensus forecasts.
Separately, the Commerce Department said U.S. factory orders jumped 1.6% in February, the biggest increase since September and well above forecasts for a 1.2% rise.
After the close of European trade, the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.10%, France's CAC 40 rose 0.09%, while Germany's DAX rose 0.20%. Meanwhile, in the U.K. the FTSE 100 rose 0.10%.
On Thursday, the U.S. is to publish data on the trade balance and its weekly report on initial jobless claims.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management is to publish a report service-sector activity.