Asia-Pacific markets mostly rebounded on Thursday from the sell-off a day ago, except markets in Japan.
The Nikkei 225 and Topix fell 0.92% and 0.49%, respectively on open, shortly after the release of Japan’s July wage data.
Average monthly cash earnings in the country rose 3.6% year-on-year, a softer rise compared to the 4.5% climb seen in June.
Real wages climbed 0.4% year-on-year, the second straight month of increase after the 1.1% rise in June.
A strong pay report would give the Bank of Japan more room for a rate hike, which could put pressure on equities.
Other economic data coming from the region include trade data from Australia and retail sales numbers from Singapore.
Separately, Australian telecom operator Optus has received the green light from the country’s Competition and Consumer Commission for its proposed regional network and spectrum sharing agreement with rival TPG Telecom.
Optus, which is owned by Singapore’s Singtel, announced the agreement in April, after having lobbied against a similar merger between TPG and Telstra, Australia’s largest telco.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.15%, while the small cap Kosdaq was 0.75% higher.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.48% ahead of the trade data release.
In contrast, Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 17,461, just marginally higher than the HSI’s last close of 17,457.34.
Futures for the mainland Chinese CSI 300 were at 3,251.2, marginally lower than its last close of 3,252.16.
In the U.S., the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite was down for a second straight session.
The broad based index lost 0.16%, while the tech heavy index slipped 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the outlier, edging up 0.09%.
—CNBC’s Samantha Subin and Sarah Min contributed to this report.