Asian shares retraced earlier losses to trade higher on Thursday, as crude and gold prices also climbed.
The Nikkei 225 Index retreated 99.93 points, or 0.5%, to 18,907.67
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index gained 40.01 points, or 0.2%, to 23,525.14
Japan's core machinery orders added 6.7%, instead of the 3.1% rise forecast by an economist poll, in December from last month. The highly volatile data series is regarded as an indicator of capital spending in the coming months.
The yen weakened slightly against the U.S. dollar, tracking 112.21, but it was still down from levels of 113 last week.
In Korea, Toshiba shares were down 6.7%. The conglomerate received bids as high as $3.6 billion U.S. for a 19.9% stake in its flash memory business.
Softbank was up 0.6%, down from gains of more than 2% earlier, after it reported its third-quarter operating profit jumped 71% to 292 billion yen, supported by widespread profit strength.
Hitachi plunged 8% after news that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which was down 3.5%, requested for $6.64 billion U.S. to cover costs from their joint South African power plant project.
Australian indices experienced a small resurgence Thursday, supported by their energy sub-index, which was up 0.5% and its utilities sub-index, which gained 2.8%
Rio Tinto shares fell 0.7% to A$65.25 each after it announced late Wednesday that it would pay a larger-than-expected dividend of $1.70 U.S. per share instead of the expected $1.33 per share and announced a $500-million U.S. share buyback.
The iron ore miner had beat on its 2016 profit expectations due to rising iron ore prices and cost-cutting measures. But it shrugged off concerns that the sale of its Guinea's Simandou project to Chinalco had stalled after an investigation into payments to a consultant who helped it win rights
Shares of BHP Billiton were off 1.2% to A$25.42, after it halted operations at its Escondida cooper mine in Chile, the world's largest, ahead of a planned strike on Thursday
In central bank news, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand held its official cash rate unchanged at 1.75% and adopted a bias for holding rates steady through 2019
During Asian trade, spot gold prices traded at $1,239.74 U.S. an ounce, on political risk sentiment.
Oil prices rose on the back of an unexpected draw in U.S. gasoline inventories, Reuters reported.
Brent crude traded up 0.6% to $55.43 U.S. during Asian hours, while U.S. crude gained 0.5% to $52.61 U.S.
In other markets
In Shanghai, the CSI 300 took on 13 points, or 0.4%, to 3,396.29
In Taiwan, the Taiex Index added 46.93 points, or 0.5%, to 9,590.18
In Korea, the Kospi index inched forward 0.8 points to 2,065.88
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index recovered 13.43 points, or 0.4%, to 3,079.96
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 surged 55.36 points, or 0.8%, to 7,121.63
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 13.25 points, or 0.2%, to 5,664.62
