Asia stocks fall ahead of important US jobs report BANGKOK (AP) - Asian stock markets were mostly lower Friday ahead of a highly awaited U.S. jobs report that is considered a key gauge for determining how robust the world's No. 1 economy is. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3 percent to 8,854.26. South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.4 percent to 1,976.35 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.2 percent to 20,707.30. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.2 percent at 4,257.90. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines also fell. Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand rose. Later Friday, the U.S. government releases its report on January job creation and the unemployment rate. In December, the country added 200,000 jobs, and the rate was 8.5 percent. Some analysts said they were not expecting to see strength, based on a report Wednesday from private payroll agency ADP. The report said private-sector employment rose by 170,000 in January from the previous month - fewer jobs than expected. "The two series continue to track fairly closely and both show what everyone has rightfully fretted about for the past 18 months: there hasnt been any trend improvement in job growth since mid-2010," said analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore. Stocks were largely unchanged on Wall Street on Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down less than 0.1 percent at 12,705.41. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.1 percent to 1,325.54. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.4 percent to 2,859.68. Benchmark oil for March delivery rose 8 cents to $96.44 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell by $1.25 to end at $96.36 per barrel in New York on Thursday. In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3129 from $1.3141 late Thursday in New York. The dollar was unchanged at 76.16 yen.