NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Wednesday's brutal selloff doesn't look like a one-off with stock futures extending losses on Thursday. The highly volatile semiconductor and biotech sectors led markets lower on Wednesday after an unexpected slide in durable goods orders provided another sign the U.S. economy could be on weaker footing. 

S&P 500 futures were down 0.68%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures tumbled 0.7%, and Nasdaq futures tanked 1.1%. 

"The data looks poor and durable goods strikes as a deeper theme than just weather and strikes," said CRT Capital's David Ader. "We 'get' the [Federal Reserve] wants to hike at least once, but between that and earnings we're wary of stocks."

Investors perceive the Fed as determined to begin to normalize monetary policy sooner than later, regardless of Fed Chair Janet Yellen's insistence of the central bank's dependence on data. 

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard struck a more hawkwish tone. "Now may be a good time to begin normalizing U.S. monetary policy so that it is set appropriately for an impoving economy over the next two years," he said, addressing an audience in Frankfurt, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Weekly jobless claims continued their trend downward, falling 9,000 to 282,000 over the week ended March 21. Economists had expected 293,000 first-time filings for unemployment benefits. 

Geopolitical pressure in Yemen contributed to stock market jitters, but helped to push crude prices higher. West Texas Intermediate surged 4.4% to $51.36 a barrel on news Saudi Arabia and Gulf allies bombed Yemeni militias as the country faces civil war. The infighting could potentially disrupt crude supplies in the region, alleviating pressure on global oversupply.

To Europe, German consumer confidence hit a 13-year high a day after business confidence reached its highest point in months. Separately, the Bank of Spain boosted its 2015 growth forecast to 2.8%, up from 2% previously. 

European markets ignored signs of improvement in the eurozone, instead joining in on U.S. markets' selloff. Germany's DAX tanked 1.9%, France's CAC 40 plummeted 1.5% and the FTSE 100 in London tumbled 1.4%. 

Red Hat (RHT) - Get Report shares spiked 5% in premarket trading after the company reported quarterly profit of 43 cents a share, 2 cents higher than analysts' estimates. The company said it is seeing increased demand for its cloud products. 

SanDisk (SNDK) tanked 11% after lowering its first-quarter revenue guidance, citing weak demand as reason to slash prices. The company expects sales over its March-ending quarter of $1.3 billion, down from $1.45 billion previously. 

Lululemon  (LULU) - Get Report fell 2.4% after lowering forward guidance. The leisurewear retailer said it expects earnings of 31 cents to 33 cents a share over its next quarter, below estimates of 39 cents a share. In its most recent quarter, earnings of 78 cents a share topped analysts' expectations by 5 cents. 

Ford (F) - Get Report was nearly 1% lower after announcing a $1 billion investment in western India to build a new plant that will triple exports from the country. Competitor Toyota (TM) - Get Report also slipped more than 1% after reporting it will reduce development costs by 20% over the next fuve years. In line with the new plans, the cost of starting new production lives will halve. 

Schlumberger (SLB) - Get Report was on watch after agreeing to pay $232.8 million for violating U.S. sanctions in Iran and Sudan, ending a 6-year investigation into the company's involvement in the two countries. The oil company had previously had outfields in both countries.   

Comcast (CMCSA) - Get Report was slightly lower after pushing back the closing date of its $45 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable (TWC) . The Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department are still reviewing the deal, which Comcast believes will conclude midyear.