Asian markets traded mixed Friday morning, with Japanese automakers coming under pressure following a tweet by President-elect Donald Trump directed at Toyota, as well as due to a stronger yen.

The Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.56 percent. Shares of Toyota fell 2.03 percent, Nissan was down 2.04 percent, Honda off by 1.06 percent, Mazda Motor down 1.83 percent and Mitsubishi Motors off by 1.53 percent.

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On Thursday, Trump rebuked Toyota on Twitter and threatened the automaker with a large border tax if it builds a new plant outside the US

Meanwhile, the yen strengthened to 115.66 against the dollar on Friday morning Asia time, from levels above 118.00 earlier in the week.

Elsewhere, Australia's benchmark ASX 200 traded up 0.13 percent, while South Korea's Kospi was up 0.36 percent.

"At this stage, stock markets appear to be holding the line despite the correction of the post US election moves in the dollar and bond markets that is now well and truly under way," said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, in a note.

Stateside Dow Jones industrial average fell 42.87 points, or 0.21 percent, to close at 19,899.29. The S&P 500 dropped 1.75 points, or 0.08 percent, to end at 2,269, while the Nasdaq rose 10.93 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 5,487.94.

In the currency market, the dollar retreated to the 101 handle against a basket of currencies, from levels above 103.60 reached earlier in the week. At 8:44 a.m. HK/SIN, the dollar index traded at 101.52, unchanged from its previous close.

Among other currency majors, the Australian dollar fetched USD 0.7333, while the euro traded at USD 1.0587.

Tapas Strickland, an economist at the National Australia Bank, suggested in a morning note the moves in the global currency market on Thursday were likely in reaction to China's attempts to stabilize capital outflows.

On Thursday, China's yuan climbed at its fastest pace against the greenback in a year in offshore trade, offering some relief to a currency bedeviled by capital outflow concerns recently.

The dollar fetched as little as 6.8071 yuan in intraday, offshore trade on Thursday, the pair's lowest since November. By contrast, the onshore yuan traded at 6.8952 against the dollar.

"These moves caused a massive spike in (offshore yuan) and (onshore yuan) funding costs, which has led to a liquidation of long dollar/off-shore yuan and dollar/on-shore yuan positions," Strickland said.

In company news, electronics giant Samsung issued profit guidance for its October-December quarter, where the company expects a near 50 percent uptick on-year in operating profit. Samsung shares climbed 2.08 percent in morning trade, soundly beating the broader South Korean index.

First Published:Jan 6, 2017 7:53 AM IST