Australia

Australian shares are set to open lower, after US markets were on edge ahead of the Fed Chair's speech.

ASX futures were down 0.53% or 43 points as of 8:00am on Friday, suggesting a lower open.

US stocks fell, with the Nasdaq leading the way.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite pulled back 1.7%. The Dow industrials shed 0.4%.

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil was up 1.5% to US$77.22 a barrel, while gold was flat at US$2,484.47.

The Australian dollar was at 67.03 US cents.

Asia

Chinese shares closed lower. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3% to 2,848.77, and the Shenzhen Composite Index fell 1.1% to 1,505.08.

Hong Kong shares ended higher. The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 1.4% to 17,641.00.

Japanese shares closed higher. The Nikkei Stock Average added 0.7% to 38,211.01.

India shares ended higher. The BSE SENSEX rose 0.2% to 81,053.19.

Europe

Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index increased 0.1% to 8,288.00.

In Europe, shares closed mixed. Germany's DAX rose 0.2% to 18,493.39, and France's CAC 40 was flat at 7,524.11.

North America

U.S. stocks ended lower. The DJIA fell 0.4% to 40,712.78, the S&P 500 slipped 0.9% to 5,570.64, and the Nasdaq dropped 1.7% to 17,619.35.

Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Franklin Resources Inc, surging 4.6%, Nordson Corp jumped 3.3%, and CenterPoint Energy Inc lifted 3.1%.

The biggest decliners were Moderna Inc which dropped 6.5%, Intel Corp fell 6.1%, and Tesla Inc lost 5.7%.