Asian shares to focus on SKorea GDP, Australia retail sales, US payrolls

Down Under, the ASX 200 opened down 0.19 percent, seeing broad losses across the index, except for the energy sub-index, which was up 0.58 percent, and the all ordinaries gold sub-index, which gained 1 percent.

Nikkei futures in Chicago were down 0.26 percent at 18,465 while Osaka futures were 0.56 percent lower at 18,410. The Nikkei 225 finished at 18,513.12 in the previous session.

Australia is set to announce October retail sales and U.S. November nonfarm payrolls, a key economic indicator that the Federal Reserve eyes, are due.

U.S. crude futures closed up 3.3 percent to settle at $51.06 a barrel, while Brent climbed 4.1 percent to $53.94 for the U.S. session on Thursday.

The greenback slipped on Thursday, as investors await the U.S. jobs report. The dollar index was trading at 100.93 as of 6:54 am HK/SIN, compared to levels as high as 101.59 yesterday.

Markets stateside finished lower on Thursday, with losses led by technology stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.36 percent at 19,191.93, the S&P 500 closed down 0.35 percent at 2,191.08 while the Nasdaq composite tumbled 1.36 percent to 5,251.11.

In afterhours trading, Starbucks fell more than 3 percent after the coffee giant announced that its CEO Howard Schultz would be stepping down.

Read more:

• Economic calendar for the European and American trade sessions 17.05.2018
• Australia – Unemployment rate above expectations 5.6% vs 5.5%
• CAD is the only currency in G-10 with positive quarter against USD
• UK – Halifax house prices below expectations -3.1% vs -0.2%
• Economic calendar for the European and American trade sessions 07.05.2018