European stocks edged lower at Wednesday's close, with Cartier's parent Cie. Financière Richemont SA and other luxury stocks hit after lackluster financial updates. But Bayer AG posted a small rise following plans to buyout agrochemical heavyweight Monsanto Co. Bayer shares "gave up around half of the gains amid a mixed reaction to both the price and the concept of the deal," said CMC Markets analyst Jasper Lawler in a note.

The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 closed in negative territory Wednesday in the wake of slumping crude-oil prices, erasing earlier gains for the major benchmarks, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq bucked the losing trend. A rebound in Treasury prices had earlier buoyed the market, according to Mark Kepner, managing director of sales and trading at Themis Trading. "The stable bond market gave investors some comfort, encouraging them to buy some of the dip," he said.

Asian stocks were largely treading water Thursday, as investors stayed focused on key monetary policy meetings next week, but a firmer yen pressured Japanese stocks. Nevertheless, the dollar-yen currency pair is expected to remain directionless, with many investors sitting on the sidelines ahead of monetary-policy meetings in the U.S. and Japan next week, said Osao Iizuka, head of FX trading at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.