Stock futures were lower once again on Thursday with more weakness seen in technology stocks.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 197 points, or 0.6%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures shed 0.5% each.
Shares of Cisco led technology shares lower, dropping 6% in premarket trading after the data center networking hardware maker issued weaker-than-expected earnings guidance for the current quarter.
Other tech shares including Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix and Intel were weaker in premarket trading.
The move in futures followed a roller-coaster session on Wall Street triggered by a sudden drop in bitcoin, which led to a sharp sell-off in many speculative areas of the market. Cryptocurrency-linked shares, including Tesla, Coinbase and MicroStrategy led the market decline as bitcoin tanked as much as 30% at one point Wednesday.
After touching nearly $30,000 at its low, bitcoin made back some of those losses later Wednesday. The stock market closed well off its lows as bitcoin rebounded.
On Thursday, the cryptocurrency was slightly higher at around $40,000, according to Coin Metrics. Coinbase shares were higher in early trading Thursday after Wedbush said to buy the crypto-exchange despite the volatility.
“Crypto, after all, is the poster child for liquidity-induced speculation and the fact that this is now deflating … lends credence to the sense that risk markets are now starting to adjust to the looming prospect of peak-liquidity,” a JPMorgan strategist said in a note.
The S&P 500 slid 1.6% at its session low in the previous session but recouped most of the losses to close down just 0.3% as the bitcoin stabilized. The blue-chip Dow finished the session about 160 points lower after plunging 580 points at one point. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended the day flat, erasing a 1.7% drop.
Thursday was the third straight day of losses for the Dow, which is down 1.4% for the week. The average lost about 1% last week as the market rally to highs stalls.
On Wednesday, investors also digested the Federal Reserve’s minutes from April that hinted at considering tapering its asset purchase programs in upcoming meetings.
“A number of participants suggested that if the economy continued to make rapid progress toward the Committee’s goals, it might be appropriate at some point in upcoming meetings to begin discussing a plan for adjusting the pace of asset purchases,” the Fed minutes said.
Investors await the latest number of U.S. weekly jobless claims to gauge the pace of labor-market recovery. New claims for unemployment benefits are expected to total 452,000 for the week ended May 15, slightly lower than 473,000 in the week prior, according to economists polled by Dow Jones.
Kohl’s and Petco‘s earnings are set to be released before the bell on Thursday.
