Global Equities Rally Ahead Of Friday's Nonfarm Payrolls Data

Asian stocks were mostly higher on Friday ahead of the U.S. government's release of May's nonfarm payrolls. Analysts surveyed by Reuters are looking for the economy to have added 164,000 jobs in May.

Investors and traders from across the globe will likely be paying closer attention than usual to the nonfarm payroll data as a strong reading could solidify the Federal Reserve's decision to implement a rate hike in the coming months.

Meanwhile, China's Caixin Markit services purchasing managers' index (PMI) for May fell to 51.2 from 51.8 in April, but remained above the key 50 level which indicates an economic expansion. A separate Markit survey of Japan's services sector rose to 50.3 in May from 49.3 in April.

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Australia's ASX index was an outperformer and gained 0.76 percent, while Japan's Nikkei index gained 0.48 percent, China's Shanghai Composite index gained 0.46 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.42 percent and Taiwan's TSEC index gained 0.37 percent.

European stocks were also mostly higher with four hours of trading remaining.

Markit's composite PMI output for the entire eurozone in May inched higher to 53.1 from 53.0 in April.

The UK's FTSE index was higher by 0.97 percent, Germany's DAX index was higher by 0.63 percent and France's CAC index was higher by 0.52 percent.

The price of oil also ticked higher Friday morning after a meeting of OPEC representatives failed to agree to an output cap and data from the U.S. showed oil production in the country fell another 32,000 barrels a day week-on-week.

Brent crude rose 0.16 percent to $50.12 a barrel for August deliveries and WTI crude rose 0.08 percent to $49.21 a barrel.

"The fact oil prices didn't make any major movements shows the markets had zero expectations a production ceiling would be reached in the meeting," Ric Spooner, chief analyst at CMC Markets told The Wall Street Journal.