Shares in Asia turned cautious on Friday after a Nvidia-fueled technology rally, while currency and bond markets held their breath for the world's most powerful central banker to speak on US interest rates.Oil prices were headed for weekly losses as Iran and Oman had agreed on administering traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and sharing revenues, though Washington has shown little interest in reviving direct talks with Tehran. Brent eased 0.1 percent to US$89.63 a barrel but was set for a weekly drop of over 5 percent.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1 percent, while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.5 percent.
Taiwanese shares gained 1.2 percent after Nvidia jumped nearly 9 percent overnight after the chipmaker reported robust results and signaled the AI spending boom has years left to run. South Korea's KOSPI, however, fell 1 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.3 percent.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were off 0.1 percent, while EURO STOXX 50 futures edged up 0.3 percent.
All eyes are on the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Symposium where chair Kevin Warsh is slated to speak later in the day. Three Fed officials have already sounded the alarm about sticky inflation but the new central bank chief has resisted providing forward guidance about where interest rates are going.
