Stocks in Asia saw declines on Friday morning, following the overnight release of U.S. retail data which saw the sector seeing its biggest drop in nearly a decade.
Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 1.26 percent in early trade while the Topix shed 1.19 percent. Shares of Japanese conglomerate Softbank Group declined around 1 percent.
South Korea's Kospi declined 0.99 percent as shares of industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics and chipmaker SK Hynix both fell more than 2 percent.
Australia's ASX 200 slipped 0.16 percent in morning trade as the sectors mostly traded down. The materials subindex fell 0.2 percent as shares of major miners declined. Rio Tinto shed 0.4 percent, Fortescue Metals Group declined 0.95 percent and BHP Billiton slipped 0.68 percent.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 slipped 0.27 percent to close at 2,745.72 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 103.88 points to finish its trading day at 25,439.39. The Nasdaq Composite, on the other hand, edged up by 0.1 percent to close at 7,426.95.
The moves stateside came on the back of U.S. retail sales in December coming in far below expectations.
U.S. retail sales fell 1.2 percent in December, marking their biggest monthly drop since September 2009, according to The Commerce Department. The department also said retail sales fell 0.9 percent in December when excluding gasoline station sales.
"The main news has been the 'unbelievable' and shocking US retail sales release for December," David de Garis, a director and senior economist at National Australia Bank, said in a morning note. "Many analysts were left dumbfounded by the release."
"The equity meltdown? Maybe there is something in that perhaps, as there was from the apparent inability of seasonal adjustment factors to cope with the now-pervasive bring forward of (on line) sales into November from Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Perhaps revisions are pending," de Garis said.
The economist also said the data release could "open a risk the US economy might be slowing faster than commonly expected," as it came along with a further increase in jobless claims.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.978 after seeing a high above 97.2 yesterday.
The Japanese yen traded at 110.44 against the dollar after seeing lows around 111 yesterday. The Australian dollar was at $0.7095 after seeing lows around $0.708 in the previous session.
— CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
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