HONG KONG: Asian markets struggled on Friday despite Wall Street benchmarks climbing overnight on the back of healthy US economic data.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at fresh records Thursday after another fall in applications for unemployment benefits, while trade balance figures contained hints of an end to supply chain snarls that have driven up prices.

But gains on other bourses were limited, with traders awaiting US payroll data on Friday for an indication of when Washington will begin to taper coronavirus support measures and put the brakes on inflation, portending a volatile session when New York re-opens.

"The first headless chicken move by markets in the 30 minutes after the numbers is, more often than not, the wrong one," said OANDA analyst Jeffrey Halley.

"Thankfully, Asia will have the entire weekend to pick the bones from the smoking ruins of the New York session and make more level-headed assessments," he added.

Broader sentiment has also been dampened by the global spread of the Delta coronavirus variant, said Tapas Strickland of National Australia Bank.

"Delta concerns remain, though markets continue to view it more in the window of delay rather than derail given the high efficacy of vaccines," he added.

"Nevertheless, a number of US companies have pushed back the date when they expect most workers to return to offices given the spread of delta."

Hong Kong was up 0.1 percent despite weakness in banking shares, though Tencent was up nearly five percent to pare the week's losses after signs of a regulatory crackdown on the online gaming industry by Beijing.

Fellow entertainment company Nintendo was among the biggest losers on the Tokyo exchange, diving more than seven percent after reporting a worse-than-expected quarterly profit.

The Nikkei was up 0.3 percent at the close while Shanghai was down 0.2 percent.

Sydney closed up 0.6 percent despite city authorities reporting a record number of new Covid infections and warning residents to brace for worse to come, with around two-thirds of Australia's population now in virus lockdown.

Investors there were buoyed by optimistic Reserve Bank comments forecasting an economic recovery when virus restrictions were eased.

London was barely moved in the opening minutes of trade while Frankfurt rose 0.3 percent.

Oil benchmarks meanwhile showed signs of modest upward movement with a report showing recent increases in US crude exports and other signs of recovery in coronavirus-hit markets.

"India posted twice as strong demand for US crude, implying once a country gets beyond the Delta variant, crude demand will surge quickly," said Edward Moya of OANDA.

India's economic bounce-back from its devastating Covid wave earlier this year has seen rising inflation but its central bank kept rates at record lows for a seventh straight month on Friday.

"A pre-emptive monetary policy response at this stage may kill the nascent and hesitant recovery that is trying to secure a foothold in extremely difficult conditions," Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said.