SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific stocks were mixed in Friday morning trade as investors look ahead to a closely-watched U.S. jobs report set to be released later.

Mainland Chinese stocks led losses among the region’s major markets as the Shanghai composite fell 1.07% while the Shenzhen component dropped 1.321%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined 0.92%.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan nudged 0.3% higher while the Topix index gained 0.81%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.25%.

Shares in Australia rose as the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.24%.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.42% lower.

Investor focus on Friday will likely be on the U.S. Labor Department’s monthly jobs report, set to be out on Friday. Economists expect nonfarm payrolls grew by 706,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate fell to 5.6% from 5.8%, according to Dow Jones.

Overnight stateside, the S&P 500 rose to yet another record close as it gained 0.52% to 4,319.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 131.02 points to 34,633.53 while the Nasdaq Composite edged 0.13% higher to 14,522.38.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 92.566 after rising from below 92.1 earlier this week.

The Japanese yen traded at 111.59 per dollar, still weaker than levels below 110.8 seen against the greenback earlier in the week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7463 following its slip from above $0.755 earlier in the trading week.

Oil prices were higher in the morning of Asia trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures up 0.11% to $75.92 per barrel. U.S. crude futures gained about 0.1% to $75.29 per barrel.