Asian indexes were mostly lower early Friday following a decline on Wall Street, with Japanese shares losing ground on Sompo Japan Insurance Co. and trading firms such as Marubeni Corp. after a volatile start. The Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4% to 16,258.79 after toggling between positive and negative territories earlier in the session, while the broader Topix index gave up 0.5% to 1,584.11. Shares of some exporters gained as the yen continued to weaken against the U.S. dollar.

South Korea's Kospi declined 1% to 1,781.76, after rising to 1,802.71 earlier in the session. Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.8% at 6,108.50, New Zealand's NZX 50 index dropped 0.7% to 4,059.40, Singapore's Straits Times Index declined 1.3% to 3,327.33 and Taiwan's Weighted index lost 0.5% at 8,692.

China's Shanghai Composite defied the broad trend, rising 0.8% to 5,070.65, a record intraday high. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar was quoted at 116.15 yen in Asia versus 116.06 yen in New York late Thursday.