Tokyo — Asian equities followed Wall Street’s gains overnight and edged higher on Friday while the dollar’s advance slowed ahead of the US jobs report due later in the session. The nonfarm payrolls report is the last before the US Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting and may influence the timing of the Fed’s rate increase. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3%. Australian shares added 0.15% while South Korea’s Kospi gave back earlier gains to dip 0.2%. Japan’s Nikkei climbed 0.2%. Chinese shares gained after the private Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) showed the country’s August manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in six months. Shanghai was up 0.4% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.3%. Wall Street shares closed higher overnight as investors responded to strong economic data and drew some cautious hope from the Trump administration’s latest promises for long-awaited details of a tax reform plan. US consumer spending...
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