Japanese stocks climbed for the seventh successive session as the yen fell against the U.S. dollar, while other Asian markets were little moved before China started its monthly data dump.
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The U.S. dollar was at �94.94 early Friday. Though lower than its overnight high of �95.10, the dollar's strongest level against the yen since August 2009, the greenback added to the 0.8% gain it made on Thursday.
The yen weakened as investors anticipated more aggressive monetary policy from the Bank of Japan. The central bank left its policy unchanged on Thursday, the last meeting for current governor Masaaki Shirakawa. Expectations are higher for next month's meeting, when the man expected to become the next governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, will be at the helm.
Japanese stocks reacted well to more weakness in the yen, with the Nikkei climbing 1.3% in early trade.
The effect of the softer yen in Tokyo was most evident in technology exporters, with semiconductor firms Tokyo Electron and Advantest Corp. up 3.2% and 2.9% respectively.
More broadly, stocks were little moved before China's monthly slew of economic data started to come out.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.1% and South Korea's Kospi was down 0.1%.
The first piece Chinese economic data due to be released will be trade data for February, which is expected to come out during the morning session Friday. Over the weekend, China will deliver data on inflation, industrial output and retail sales.
The forthcoming data is important because it will give investors a chance to check on the health of the recovery in Asia's largest economy, though the numbers for February could be seasonally influenced by the Lunar New Year.
The other main data point for Friday will come from the U.S., where the nonfarm payrolls will be released after Asian markets close.
Write to Daniel Inman at daniel.inman@wsj.com
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