Nasdaq futures drop ahead of U.S. retail sales and jobs data

Futures tied to Wall Street’s tech-heavy index, the Nasdaq, fell by 0.6% Thursday alongside a near 1% decline in bitcoin’s price.

Asian stocks declined, with South Korea’s Kospi index falling by over 6% and Japan’s Nikkei losing nearly 2%.

Korea’s central bank hiked its benchmark interest rate for the first time in over three years, warning of sticky inflation.

Later on Thursday, investors will get U.S. retail sales data and jobless claims data. These reports will likely be scanned for signs of whether the economy is deteriorating just enough to keep inflation under control or slipping into a destabilizing downturn.