Investing.com - Asian stock futures faced a slight downturn on Thursday, following a tech-driven slump in Wall Street as market participants await US inflation figures to shed light on the Federal Reserve's forthcoming policy actions.
Futures contracts for key indices in Japan and Hong Kong experienced drops while Australia saw little shift. The S&P 500 index fell by 0.7% on Wednesday, with Nasdaq 100 seeing a more significant decline of 1.1%, primarily due to NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) fall of 4.7%.
This dip reflects investors' changing attitudes towards the AI boom that has driven tech stocks upwards this year. Meanwhile, American futures showed signs of recovery during early Asian trading hours.
This activity precedes July's consumer price index data release scheduled later on Thursday, which is predicted to show a marginal increase mainly due to higher oil prices, while core inflation is expected to continue its downward trajectory - A scenario Bloomberg Economics believes could lead Fed into pausing rate hikes at their next meeting in September.
Among currency markets, there was little movement seen after offshore yuan rallied mildly on Wednesday, while the US Dollar Index and yen were also unchanged.
On the corporate earnings front, Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) reported profits surpassing analyst's forecasts and announced a streaming service fee hike including their flagship Disney+ ad-free version. Illumina Inc (NASDAQ:ILMN) however suffered a loss as the DNA-sequencing company trimmed profit projections.
Meanwhile, Gold Futures dipped to monthly lows of $1915 per ounce, while Bitcoin remained stagnant around the $29500 mark.
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- "Stock Market Watch: Asia Braces For Impact As Wall St Faces Tech-Led Fall"