Greater China markets were little changed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index traded lower by 0.02 percent, with banks and insurers slipping in morning trade. The Shanghai composite shed 0.19 percent and the Shenzhen composite eased 0.06 percent.
Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.23 percent. The heavily weighted financials subindex declined 0.56 percent, dragging the index lower but paring steeper losses seen earlier. The materials and energy sectors, meanwhile, were among the few sectors carving out gains.
MSCI's index of shares in Asia Pacific excluding Japan held above the flat line, tracking higher by 0.12 percent in morning Asia trade.
On the earnings front, Singapore Airlines is slated to release full-year results later in the day.
U.S. stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with retail sector stocks climbing following strong results from department store company Macy's. Also of note, the small-cap Russell 2000 added 1 percent and finished at a record close.
After surging past the 3 percent level on Tuesday, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to a fresh near seven-year high. The 10-year Treasury yield on Wednesday surpassed the 3.1 percent level for the first time since Jul 8, 2011.
Elsewhere, Italy's right-wing Lega party denied reports that it was seeking a 250 billion euro ($296 billion) debt write-off if it becomes part of a power-sharing deal with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. In reaction, the country's FTSE MIB fell 2.32 percent on Thursday while Italian bond yields moved higher.
On Thursday, the euro traded at $1.1808 in early Asia trade, not far from the five-month lows it touched in the previous session.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that whether his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un goes through remained to be seen. Earlier, North Korea said it would rethink the June 12 summit if the U.S. insisted on denuclearization.
The uncertainty did not appear to have a major impact on markets in the region.
"I think investors are just going to hold on the sidelines and kind of watch this, see how it develops. I expect there to be a lot of this sort of political rhetoric leading into the summit. I don't think it's going to be a big investment thesis for the markets," Jack McIntyre, portfolio manager at Brandywine Global Investment Management, told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
The dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of major currencies, last stood at 93.302 after rising to a five-month high of 93.632 overnight. Gains in the greenback in recent week come amid expectations that the Federal Reserve will be more hawkish than other central banks.
Against the yen, the dollar traded at 110.33 at 9:37 a.m. HK/SIN.
On the energy front, U.S. crude futures rose 0.18 percent to trade at $71.62 per barrel and Brent crude futures shed 0.06 percent to trade at $79.23.
Among individual movers, shares of Tencent got a boost after the tech giant reported first-quarter net profit rose 61 percent to 23.9 billion yuan ($3.66 billion), topping an average Thomson Reuters forecast of 17.5 billion yuan. Tencent stock jumped 5.2 percent in morning trade.
— CNBC's Thomas Franck and Silvia Amaro contributed to this report.