Asian shares mostly decline ahead of watched US jobs report

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower on Thursday as investors awaited a much watched U.S. jobs for indications of how the recovery from the pandemic is faring.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4% to 28,707.04, while South Korea's Kospi lost 0.5% to 3,281.79. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.5% to 7,274.00. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.3% to 3,600.64. Trading was closed in Hong Kong for the anniversary of the handover of the former British colony to Beijing.

The Bank of Japan's quarterly “tankan” survey showed continuous recovery, with large manufacturers' sentiment remaining largely positive despite the pandemic.

The headline survey showed a rise to 14 from 5 in the previous quarter, but that was lower than expected, according to Robert Carnell, regional head of research Asia-Pacific at ING.

The tankan measures corporate sentiment by subtracting the number of companies saying business conditions are negative from those responding they are positive.

Carnell and others said the tankan findings show the big jump in recovery for the world's third largest economy may already be over, meaning that from now, the rebound will be steady but gradual.

“Risks factors such as the more contagious delta strain of COVID-19 and U.S. payrolls report will continue to be on watch,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG in Singapore.

“Although there has been optimism on the vaccine front to curb the delta variant, the vaccination progress in the region will have to see some significant pick-up to deal with the spreads,” Yeap said.

Worries remain as Asia has lagged the U.S. and parts of Europe in vaccinations and some countries are enduring their worst outbreaks yet.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 edged up 0.1%, bringing its advance over the past three months to...