Asian markets recover from Wednesday's sell-off except for Nikkei.

• The Bank of Japan's monetary policy moves may be indicated by the July pay data from Japan, which investors in Asia are evaluating.
• Economic data from the region include trade data from Australia and Singapore's retail sales numbers.

Markets in Japan were the only ones in the Asia-Pacific region that did not recover on Thursday from the previous day's sell-off.

Japan's July wage data caused the Nikkei 225 and Topix to decline by 0.92% and 0.49%, respectively on open.

The increase in average monthly cash earnings in the country was 3.6% year-on-year, which was a slower rise compared to the 4.5% growth recorded in June.

The second consecutive month saw a 0.4% increase in real wages, following the 1.1% rise in June.

A rate hike by the Bank of Japan could put pressure on equities if the pay report is strong.

Economic data from the region include trade data from Australia and retail sales numbers from Singapore.

The small cap Kosdaq rose 0.75%, while South Korea's rose 1.15%.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia increased by 0.48% prior to the release of trade information.

Although Hong Kong futures were at 17,461, they were only slightly higher than the HSI's previous close of 17,457.34.

The mainland Chinese CSI 300 futures were at 3,251.2, slightly below its previous closing price of 3,252.16.

In the U.S., the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both experienced a decline for the second consecutive day.

While the tech-heavy index slipped 0.3%, the broad-based index lost 0.16%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the outlier, edging up 0.09%.

—CNBC's Samantha Subin and Sarah Min contributed to this report.