Ahead of payrolls, Asian stocks decline due to South Korea risk, and the dollar is cautious.

While dollar bulls nervously awaited the outcome of U.S. payrolls that either confirmed or challenged expectations of a rate cut this month, Asian markets fell Friday due to political unrest in South Korea. The 1.7% decline in South Korea's KOSPI contributed to a 0.3% decline in MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan. Following President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law in the nation on Tuesday, the Korean won plummeted 0.8% to 1,425.42 per dollar, heading toward the low of 1,443.4.Following several reports of another proclamation of martial law, the Democratic Party, South Korea's major opposition party, stated Friday that MPs were on standby, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency.

Other markets saw gains of 0.4% for Hong Kong's Hang Seng and 0.2% for China's blue chips.Japan's Nikkei fell 0.6% but is up 2.5% for the week. Data showed that Japan's local wages grew at the fastest pace in 32 years in October, although markets are still leaning towards no rate hike from the Bank of Japan this month.