Asian stocks stepped back in subdued trade on Friday as Wall Street took a breather from its relentless rise since the US election, while the dollar hovered below its 14-year high set earlier this week. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan , which touched a five-month low on Thursday, eased 0.1 percent, and is headed for a weekly drop of 1.4 percent. Japan's Nikkei also lost 0.1 percent, but is set to end the week with a small 0.1 percent gain.
Overnight, US equities posted their first back-to-back daily declines of the month in light trading as investors took time out ahead of the Christmas weekend. U.S. indices fell as much as 0.4 percent on Thursday. Wall Street stocks have been on a tear since the US election on expectations that President-elect Donald Trump's promised fiscal stimulus will boost economic growth and company profits.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has surged 8.7 percent since before the election. The markets globally appeared be on pause amid the looming holidays, with the MSCI World index down 0.15 percent on Thursday, and little changed early on Friday.
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