Mount Fuji and buildings in the Shinjuku district are reflected on a table at an observation deck in Tokyo, Japan, on December 24, 2013.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets are set for a mixed open ahead of Japan’s revised gross domestic product numbers for its third quarter, as well as India’s central bank rate decision.
Japan’s third-quarter GDP is expected to be in line with the first estimate released on Nov. 15, with the economy contracting by 0.5% quarter-on-quarter, a softer fall than the 1.2% decline seen in the second quarter.
The Reserve Bank of India will also release its rate decision on Friday, with a Reuters poll of 64 economists unanimously forecasting that the bank will keep its benchmark policy rate steady at 6.5% for the fourth straight time.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slid 0.38%, extending losses from Thursday.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is also set to fall, with the futures contract in Chicago at 32,425 and its counterpart in Osaka at 32,360 against the index’s last close of 32,858.31.
In contrast, futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 16,423, pointing to a stronger open compared with the HSI’s close of 16,345.89.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes gained ground as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 broke three-day losing streaks, ahead of Friday’s all-important jobs report.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.8%, while the blue-chip Dow added 0.17%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.37% as technology stocks outperformed.
Google-parent Alphabet gained more than 5% as traders cheered the company’s launch of its Gemini artificial intelligence model. Nvidia and AMD also added more than 2% and 9%, respectively.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh and Alex Harring contributed to this report.