Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 50.22 points, or 0.29 percent, to open at 17,260.83 points on Thursday.

Traders are taking a cautious stance ahead of Friday's release of personal consumption expenditures price index data, which is the Federal Reserve's favoured measure of inflation and therefore plays a major role in its view on interest rates..

Overnight in the US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended at multi-week lows, with the S&P snapping one of its longest streaks without a daily decline of more than 2 percent, as lacklustre Alphabet and Tesla earnings undermined investor confidence in large company names.

The Nasdaq Composite Index finished down 3.6 percent, or more than 650 points, at 17,342.41. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3 percent to 39,853.87, and the S&P 500 dropped 2.3 percent to 5,427.13. (with additional reporting by Xinhua and Reuters)