Asian shares tracked Wall Street lower Thursday as weak forecasts from U.S. corporate bellwethers underscored concern over global demand, particularly from China, and kept oil and other commodity prices under pressure.

A warning from Chevron Corp (CVX.N) over its third-quarter results followed an Alcoa's (AA.N) outlook for dwindling aluminum consumption, with both shares falling more than 4 percent and dragging the S&P 500.SPX to its fourth straight loss overnight, Reuters reported.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan 0.3 percent, with the materials sub-index shedding 0.8 percent. Japan's Nikkei share average dropped 0.6 percent.

As S&P downgraded Spain’s credit rating by two notches, the euro was down 0.1 percent at $1.2856, just above its lowest since Oct. 1 of $1.2835 hit on Wednesday.

"With U.S. stocks falling, and IMF and World Bank raising alarms about the Chinese growth slowdown, market sentiment is against risk - and growth-sensitive or high-yielding currencies are prone to downside risks," Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo, told Reuters.

A better-than-expected Australian employment report helped the Australian dollar recover some of its earlier commodities-led losses.

Oil prices steadied in early Asian trading after having fallen in volatile trading overnight. U.S. crude futures which fell over 1 percent were trading flat while Brent futures were up 0.2 percent.

Spot gold was little changed at $1,759.29 an ounce.

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