The Nasdaq has suffered its worst drop since February 2021.

The Federal Reserve stated in the minutes of its most recent meeting on Wednesday, January 5, that it would accelerate its plans to raise interest rates because of the robust economy and consistently higher-than-target inflation, despite the rapid spread of the omicron version of COVID-19.

The Nasdaq fell the most since February 2021 due to the hawkish news, while Treasuries maintained their gains, with the 10-year Treasury note surpassing 1.73 per cent.

The news impacted Nasdaq futures, but S&P futures remained unchanged. The Dow Jones futures, on the other hand, soared.

Overseas, European equities markets were down 1%, while Japan's Nikkei was down 3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished 0.72 per cent higher, but Korea's KOSPI fell 1.13 per cent. The Sensex in India fell 1.03 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite in China was down 0.25 per cent and the TAIEX in Taiwan lost 0.71 per cent. Bitcoin fell to $42,900, and other cryptocurrencies followed suit.

Initial unemployment claims were more than predicted, reaching 207,000 for the week ending January 1, 2022, 7,000 more than the previous week's corrected figure.

5 The Institute of Supply Management's services activity index is predicted to be 66.1 in December, down 0.8 from October's reading of 66.9.

Traders will get another peek at the labour market conditions on Friday when the Labor Department releases its jobs data.