TGIF? Not This Week As Global Equities Sell Off

Asian equities closed mostly lower on Friday as lower commodity prices weighed in on commodity-linked stocks, while poor earnings from several Japanese companies disappointed investors.

Energy explorer Inpex fell 4.2 percent after reporting a weaker-than-expected operating profit, while Mitsubishi Materials fell 11 percent as the company also reported a weaker-than-expected print. Meanwhile, the yen gained 0.2 percent to $108.83, bringing its weekly decline to 1.6 percent.

"After the rally in March and April, things are still looking a little bit uncertain," Oliver Lee, investment director at Old Mutual Global Investors (Asia Pacific) Ltd told Bloomberg. "There's not much conviction in the market. The market is still being driven by central bank sentiment and currency movements. The earnings season in Japan hasn't been great."

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Japan's Nikkei index was a notable underperformer among major Asian indices, losing 1.41 percent. India's Mumbai Sensex index lost 1.17 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 0.99 percent, Taiwan's TSEC index lost 0.67 percent.

Australia's ASX index also lost 0.50 percent while China's Shanghai index lost 0.31 percent.

European stocks were also lower with more than 4 hours of trading remaining.

"The bounce in oil earlier this week is fizzling out, which reinforces the idea that we should be cautious about the current outlook," Chris Beauchamp, a London-based market analyst at IG Plc also told Bloomberg. "People just don't seem to believe in growth for the equity market and prefer staying on the sidelines. Investors are nervous ahead of retail sales, which has been an underlying theme this week."

The UK's FTSE index was lower by 0.51 percent, France's CAC index was lower by 0.33 percent and Germany's DAX was lower by 0.06 percent.

Oil prices were also lower early Friday morning. The price of brent crude fell 0.73 percent to trade at $47.73 a barrel, while WTI fell 1.22 percent to trade at $46.15.