After a shaky start, MSCI's broadest index of ‌Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 2.2% following two consecutive days of declines.

South Korea's Kospi swung between gains and losses, before surging more than 6% as buyers ​pounced on battered chipmaker stocks. S&P 500 e-mini futures rose 0.4%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 reversed early losses to trade 1.2% higher.

Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data released on Friday indicated increased activity across the region.

Japan's services sector returned to expansion in June after stalling the previous month, while China's services activity expanded at a slightly slower pace but overseas demand rose at the fastest rate in 20 months.

"The PMIs ‌remain healthy by recent standards and still ⁠imply stronger economic momentum across Q2 as a whole," analysts from Capital Economics said of the Chinese data.

U.S. LABOUR MARKET COOLING

U.S. job growth slowed sharply in June and payroll gains for the prior two ⁠months were revised lower, according to data released on Thursday, pointing to a cooling labour market. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% last month from 4.3% in May as workers left the labour force, pushing the participation rate to the lowest level in more than five years.

"The figures ​challenged ​the narrative that the Fed remains on track to hike in the ​second half of this year," Westpac analysts wrote ‌in a research report.

The tepid jobs data doused traders' expectations of an imminent rate hike and raised the odds that the Fed will keep rates on hold until October.

Fed funds futures are pricing an implied 46.8% probability that the U.S. central bank will keep rates steady at its meeting on September 15 to 16, compared to a 35.8% chance a day earlier, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

Overnight, stocks on Wall Street were a mixed bag as the S&P 500 was flat and the Nasdaq Composite ‌slipped 0.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to a record ​close.

The U.S. market will be closed on Friday in observance of the Independence ​Day holiday.

Against the yen, the U.S. dollar was flat ​at 161.06, with the greenback giving up gains as market liquidity was thinned by the holiday and ‌traders remained on watch for intervention.