Asian markets were lower on Friday, with Australian retailers
weighing on Sydney and the Nikkei dropped after the yen
strengthened.
The region moved lower after a broadly negative session on Wall
Street, at the end of a week that has been dominated by U.S.
economic data   in particular, the disappointing labor
report released last Friday and strong retail numbers that were
released earlier in the week.
The dollar stabilized against the yen during Asian trade after a
0.2% fall on Thursday -- last at Yen104.35.
As a result, the Nikkei fell 0.3%, putting it down 1.3% for the
week so far.
In other markets, South Korea's Kospi was flat and Australia's
S&P/ASX 200 was 0.2% lower.
Australian retailers were in focus on Friday, after Super Retail
Group plunged 15% after warning that weak margins on its leisure
division will hurt first-half net profit. The news sparked selling
across the retail space, with Harvey Norman Holdings losing 2%, JB
Hi-Fi falling 3.1% and David Jones 3% lower.
Large miners in Australia however extended their gains on the
strong U.S. economic data earlier in the week. Rio Tinto added 1.3%
and BHP Billiton climbed 2.5% higher, with the stocks gaining 4.4%
and 3.5% respectively so far this week.
Investors were waiting for a batch of Chinese economic data on
Monday, in particular fourth-quarter gross domestic product data.
The world's second-largest economy likely grew by 7.6% on year,
according to the median forecast of 13 economists surveyed by The
Wall Street Journal--slightly lower than 7.8% in the third quarter.
Other numbers scheduled for Monday include industrial output and
retail sales.
Write to Daniel Inman at daniel.inman@wsj.com
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