China's May exports and Japan pay data beat expectations; Asia markets mixed

This is CNBC's live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.

Asia-Pacific stocks were mixed on Friday as investors looked at economic data from China and digested Japan's pay numbers, with markets also assessing the European Central Bank's rate cut.

China's May exports beat expectations, climbing 7.6% against the 6% expected by a Reuters poll of economists and vastly higher than the 1.5% rise seen in April. Imports climbed 1.8% year on year, missing the 4.2% expected in a Reuters poll.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index reversed earlier gains and fell 0.63% after the trade data announcement, with the mainland Chinese CSI 300 seeing a larger loss of 0.73%

Japan released its household spending figures for April — a key metric to assess if the Bank of Japan's expected "virtuous cycle" of rising wages and prices was underway.

The average monthly consumption expenditures per household for April was 313,300 yen, up 3.4% in nominal terms and up 0.5% in real terms. This marked the first rise in real household spending since February 2023.

April pay is key to watch as wage hikes commonly take effect during this month, which marks the beginning of Japanese companies' financial years.

Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.11%, while the broad-based Topix was down marginally.

South Korea's Kospi rose 0.84% as investors returned from a public holiday, while the small-cap Kosdaq gained 1.31%.

The Australian S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.41%.

Overnight in the U.S., markets remained range-bound as traders looked ahead to Friday's nonfarm payrolls report for May, with investors on the hunt for signs of a weakening labor market, which could support rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 ended Thursday marginally lower, after hitting an all-time intraday high earlier