BANGKOK ? Asian stocks failed to make much headway Friday after disappointing Japanese corporate earnings and U.S. home sales ? considered crucial to an economic recovery ? were weaker than expected.
Benchmark oil hovered below $100 per barrel while the dollar was lower against the euro and the yen.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3 percent to 8,823.08. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.1 percent to 1,959.92. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat at 20,431.96, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2 percent to 4,279.
Jackson Wong, vice president of Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong, said profit-taking was the order of the day as investors remained unconvinced that the overall global economic scenario was changing for the better.
"A lot of investors are a little bit worried. Not all the fundamentals have changed. Since we had a huge run up, investors are just taking some profits" until mainland Chinese markets open on Jan. 30 following the Lunar New Year holiday.
However, bargain-hunters indulged in stocks that took a beating last year, Wong said, including clothing retailer Esprit Holdings Ltd., which rose 2.8 percent.
Some traders were in wait-and-see mode ahead of the release of fourth-quarter gross domestic product figures from the U.S. Commerce Department later Friday. GDP measures the economy's total output of goods and services.
Economists predict growth will strengthen to around 3 percent in the October-December quarter from about 2 percent in the third quarter. Analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said the reading was expected to "look healthy."
Attention was also focused on the resumption of talks to reach a deal on how Greece can avoid a catastrophic default on its debt. Greece and its bailout rescuers ? other countries that use the euro and the International Monetary Fund ? are asking private creditors to swap their Greek bonds for new ones with a lower value and interest rate.
The two sides have so far disagreed over what interest rate the new bonds should take.
In the U.S., stocks slipped Thursday after the government reported an unexpected drop in new home sales in December, capping the worst year for home sales since record-keeping began in 1963.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.2 percent at 12,734.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed down 0.6 percent at 1,318.43. The Nasdaq shed 0.5 percent to close at 2,805.28.
But there were some bright spots. Orders to factories for long-lasting manufactured goods increased in December for the second straight month, and a key measure of business investment rose solidly.
Japanese exporters continued to be hit by a strong yen, which reduces the value of repatriated profits. Honda Motor Corp. slid 2.1 percent and Panasonic Corp. shed 2.5 percent. Fujitsu Ltd. plunged 3 percent.
Nintendo Corp., the Japanese gaming giant behind the Super Mario and Pokemon games, plunged 4.7 percent, a day after it sharply lowered its annual earnings forecast to a 65 billion yen ($844 million) loss. The company blamed the strong yen for much of the loss.
Japanese electronics company NEC Corp. plummeted 7.1 percent after announcing Thursday that it was slashing 10,000 jobs worldwide and would slide into the red for the full year.
Benchmark oil for March delivery was up 6 cents to $99.76 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 30 cents to finish at $99.70 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3110 from $1.3104 late Thursday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.02 yen from 77.49 yen.
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