Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is set to give what could be his most consequential speech yet — just a few days after one of his colleagues was threatened with prosecution for alleged mortgage fraud.

Asia shares trade mixed on Friday, tracking an overnight decline on Wall Street amid ongoing tech stock sell-offs and anticipation of Powell's remarks. Meanwhile, Japanese shares had a mixed day. This came after new data showed consumer inflation in Japan remained well above the Bank of Japan's annual target.

TRADING DAY Making sense of the forces driving global markets By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist U.S. stocks fell on Thursday and the dollar and Treasury yields rose, as solid factory data cast a bit more doubt on the Fed's readiness to lower interest rates next month.

The Justice Department signaled possible plans to investigate Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, with a top official informing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell of the probe and encouraging him to remove her from the board in a letter sent Thursday.

President Donald Trump is calling on a Federal Reserve governor to resign over an accusation of mortgage fraud.