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Hong Kong - Most Asian bourses slipped on Friday and gold and silver extended their recent declines amid concerns over the global economy, but oil edged up on bargain hunting after the previous day's plunge.
Global investors have become nervous about the strength of the recovery after disappointing jobs data out of the United States and manufacturing figures in Europe.
Commodities prices have also been hit by a strengthening dollar after the European Central Bank played down its concerns about inflation, lowering the prospect of another eurozone rate in the near future.
Tokyo's Nikkei, which has been closed for the past three days for public holidays, tumbled 1.82% by the break, Hong Kong was off 1.18 %, Shanghai lost 0.90%, Sydney dropped 0.22% and Seoul slumped 1.58%.
Resource firms led the losses as the price of commodities including gold, silver and oil tumbled on demand concerns.
In Australia, mining giant BHP Billiton was down 2.2% and rival Rio Tinto fell 2.0% while Japan's Inpex lost 5.5% and South Korean firm S-Oil Corp lost 6.8%.
Gold opened at $1 485.00 to $1 486.00, well down from its Thursday close of $1 516.00 to $1 517.00, and from its record high of almost $1 570 last Friday. Silver slumped 5.2% to $34.34 a troy ounce in early trade after hitting a record past $49 last Friday.
Crude dived on Thursday, with New York's main contract sliding more than 8% below $100 a barrel for the first time since March 16, while Brent North Sea crude for delivery in June slumped $10.39.
However, bargain hunting pulled the cost of oil up in early Asian trade. New York's West Texas Intermediate added 68 cents to $100.48 per barrel and Brent gained 87 cents to $111.67.
Markets have been rattled by poor economic data around the world.
On Thursday the Labor Department reported that initial US jobless claims rose to 474 000 in the week ending April 30, a 10% increase from the prior week and an eight-month high.
The figures heightened fears that key non-farm payroll data in the US later Friday will be dismal and sent Wall Street sliding. The Dow ended 1.10% off, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 0.48% and the broader S&P 500 shed 0.91%.
Despite the weak US data the dollar rose in Asia on expectations the Federal Reserve's bond purchasing programme - known as quantitative easing - will end next month and will not be renewed, taking liquidity out of the system.
That made dollar-priced commodities more expensive.
In morning Tokyo trade the dollar fetched ¥80.50, up from ¥80.04 late Thursday in New York. The euro rose to $1.4562 from $1.4541 in New York, where the greenback shot up from $1.4827 on the ECB signal.
The euro gained to ¥117.18 from ¥116.43 but was well down from ¥119.63 early Thursday.
The commodities-based Australian dollar was also lower, at US$1.0688 after hitting a record high US$1.10 earlier this week.
The European Central Bank on Thursday kept its main interest rate unchanged at 1.25% after having raised them last month for the first time since 2008.
However bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said "the monetary policy stance is still very accommodative, we will continue to monitor very closely all developments" that pressure prices.
His omission of the phrase "strong vigilance" - codewords used in the past to signal the bank's intentions for a rate increase - hint that further hikes may be some time off, analysts say.
