People walk in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan, June 23, 2020.
Carl Court | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets rose on Friday after economic data from the United States eased recession fears, while investors also assessed a slew of data from Japan.
Initial jobless claims in the United States fell to 231,000 from 232,000 the previous week, but were slightly higher than the 230,000 that the Dow Jones had forecast.
Moreover, second-quarter GDP growth was revised to 3% from the initial rate of 2.8%.
Inflation in the Japanese capital Tokyo rose to 2.6% from 2.2% in June, its highest level since March.
Core inflation, which excludes fresh food prices, rose 2.4%, above the 2.2% forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.
Tokyo inflation is widely seen as a leading indicator of national trends.
Japan's unemployment rate rose to 2.7%, above Reuters' estimate of 2.5%.
Retail sales in the country rose 2.6% year-on-year, below the 2.9% growth expected by Reuters and the revised 3.8% increase seen in June.
Japan Nikkei 225 Index The Topix index rose 0.23% after the data was released.
South Korea Cosby The Kosdaq Small Cap Index rose 0.55% in early trading, while the Nikkei 500 gained 0.74%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.46%.
Hong Kong Hang Seng Index Futures were at 17,741, below the Hangzhou benchmark index's last close of 17,786.32.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average in the United States rose overnight to a new record high, up 0.59% to close at 41,335.05 points. Gains from Goldman Sachs, Intel and Visa helped lift the blue-chip average to a new high.
The S&P 500 ended the session just below the flat line, but the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.23%, pressured by shares of chipmaker Nvidia, which fell 6.4%.
—CNBC's Lisa Kaylai Han and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
