Global stock markets were mixed on Friday after an official survey showed Chinese factory activity weakened in May due to a slowdown in export orders.
U.S. crude futures were little changed, while oil prices fell ahead of this weekend's OPEC meeting.
Technology stocks posted the biggest declines, with Nvidia, a recent market darling fuelled by Wall Street's enthusiasm for its artificial intelligence technology, dropping 3.8% on Thursday.
European markets opened modestly higher, with Paris' CAC 40 up 0.1% to 7,986.65, the FTSE 100 added 0.4% to 8,259.68 while Germany's DAX was little changed at 18,500.20.
Futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed.
Friday sees the release of a monthly update on the Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation gauge. Late-day earnings reports will also be another driver for the market, with earnings forecasts for early 2024 coming in ahead of expectations.
In Asian markets, Tokyo's Nikkei rose 1.1 percent to 38,487.90 on reports of big investment plans by government-backed pension funds and other big institutional investors.
Chipmaker Tokyo Electron fell 2.5%.
The Nikkei newspaper reported that Japan is preparing to follow the lead of the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) and inject nearly 100 trillion yen ($638 billion) more public funds into the market.
Chinese stocks fell in late trading on reports that a prolonged crisis in the property sector would put further pressure on an economy already burdened by the pandemic.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.8% to 18,079.61, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.2% to 3,081.81.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1 percent to 7,701.70, while Seoul's KOSPI was flat at 2,6536.52.
Taiwan's Taiex fell 0.9% as shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the market's largest computer chip maker, fell 2%, following declines in other major technology companies.
Nvidia's decline helped the Nasdaq Composite fall 1.1%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.6%, despite gains for most stocks in the index and across Wall Street. The Dow fell 0.9%.
But falling Treasury yields helped stocks broadly rise and provide relief after they rallied earlier this week on concerns about weak demand for Treasury bonds following multiple U.S. government bond auctions. Rising yields put downward pressure on all kinds of investments.
Yields fell on Thursday after several reports showed the U.S. economy was not as strong as expected.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was at 4.572%, after falling to as low as 4.54% late Thursday.
In other trading early Friday, benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 10 cents to $77.81 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the international standard Brent crude lost 2 cents to $81.86 a barrel.
The U.S. dollar rose to 157.20 yen from 156.82 yen. The euro rose to 1.0837 dollars from 1.0834 dollars.
Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press
