Tech leads Asia's stock selloff, as the yen advances in a turbulent week for markets

Tech stocks led a selloff in Asian stock markets, while the yen and US bonds recovered as global investors sought to find their footing in a volatile week for markets.

Japan's Nikkei stock average was down 1% at the close, having fallen as much as 2.5% earlier, with technology stocks weighing the most on the index. Despite the subsequent two-day rally, the Nikkei was still down more than 3% for the week after falling 12.4% on Monday.

Elsewhere, Taiwan's tech-heavy stock index fell 2%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares fell 0.8%.

"Today's Asia session might be significant, as many had bought the dip in the hopes of seeing meaningful follow-through purchasing and upside momentum building," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.

"It's evident that we haven't been provided all the facts just yet."

Wall Street futures were sluggish, with the S&P 500 down 0.24% and the Nasdaq down 0.14%, following drops of approximately 0.8% and 1.1% in the cash indexes on Wednesday.

Pan-European STOXX 50 futures fell 1.2%.

The yen typically benefits when market confidence deteriorates, and it rose as much as 0.86% to 145.43 per dollar before closing roughly 0.3% higher at 146.17. The Swiss franc, another traditional haven, rose 0.3% to 0.8592 per dollar.

The dollar-yen pair is particularly susceptible to changes in long-term US Treasury rates, which have retraced over half of their overnight rise to 3.977% and are currently at 3.92% in Asian hours.

The dollar index, which measures the currency against the yen, franc, euro, and three other major peers, fell slightly to 103.09, while the euro rose little to $1.0925.

Currencies, particularly the yen, have been upended by a shift last week toward wagers on the Bank of Japan's gradual interest rate hikes and aggressive cuts by the Federal Reserve, which helped drive the dollar as low as 141.675 yen on Monday for the lowest time since the beginning of the year.

Following Friday's lackluster monthly payrolls results, which fanned worries of a US economic slump, weekly U.S. unemployment claims data later in the day may prove market changing.

Meanwhile, crude oil continued to surge after data released the day before revealed a larger-than-expected drop in US crude stockpiles.

Brent crude futures increased 0.3% to $78.56 per barrel, following Wednesday's 2.4% gain. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.4% to $75.52, following a 2.8% increase overnight.