New Zealand shares fell as did most equities in Asia, while Wall Street was muted as investors digested another raft of earnings reports.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index was down 1.2%, or 153 points, to close at 12,880.36.

Finance stocks led the decline, followed by consumer services and consumer durables.

Asian equities were also in the red, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei 225 down 1.4% and 1.8%, respectively. The Shanghai SSE Index was little changed.

Stocks were broadly muted on Wall Street overnight, although the S&P 500 managed to eke out a 0.2% gain and logged another record high.

Minutes from the US central bank's Federal Open Market Committee showed that policy-setters wanted to bring inflation down further before delivering more rate cuts.

In domestic news, ANZ Research foresees a quarter-point cut each in May and July on top of the already expected easing in April after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's widely expected 50-basis-point cut on Wednesday. The updated outlook comes amid the central bank's "greater degree of confidence" in its medium-term inflation forecast.

In corporate news, Air New Zealand (NZE:AIR, ASX:AIZ) reported fiscal first-half earnings per diluted share of NZ$0.031, down from NZ$0.038 a year earlier. The airline also disclosed a NZ$100 million buyback program from March 7, sending shares up 1% at market close.

Auckland International Airport (NZE:AIA, ASX:AIA) lost 3% even after it reported Thursday that its earnings per diluted share in the fiscal first half rose to NZ$0.1204, from NZ$0.0798 a year earlier.

Precinct Properties NZ & Precinct Properties Investments (NZE:PCT) fell 2% after it reported that its funds from operations per share in the fiscal first half slid to NZ$0.0347, compared with the prior year's NZ$0.0349.