Asia-Pacific markets started Friday lower, breaking ranks with Wall Street which mostly advanced on Thursday, amid mixed economic data from across the region.
Most notably, investors assessed China's Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers' index for November, which showed that the sector unexpectedly expanded.
The Caixin PMI reading came in at 50.7, compared to 49.5 in October and beating a Reuters poll forecast of 49.8.
This comes after official numbers Thursday showed the country's manufacturing sector contracted for a second straight month.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 inched down 0.2% and closed at 7,073.2, ending a three-day winning streak.
South Korea's Kospi tumbled 1.19%, leading losses in Asia and ending at 2,505.01, while the small cap Kosdaq was down 0.53% at 827.24.
Japan's Nikkei 225 was ended the day down 0.17% at 33,431.51, but the Topix bucked the wider trend and closed up 0.32% at 2,382.52.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.1% in its final hour of trade, while China's CSI 300 index dropped 0.38%, ending at 3,481.88 and hitting its lowest level since Oct. 24.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a new high for the year, as cooling inflation data and strong Salesforce earnings help the benchmark cap its best month since October 2022.
The S&P 500 added 0.4%, but the Nasdaq Composite was about 0.2% lower as investors took some profits in Big Tech stocks that have led the November comeback.
Separately, the U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index — the Federal Reserve's favorite inflation gauge — rose 3.5% on a year-over-year basis, slowing from a 3.7% annual gain in prior month.
— CNBC's Pia Singh and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.