Pakistan, Feb. 6 -- World shares retreated Thursday in Asia on heavy selling of technology stocks, while the price of bitcoin fell as much as 8%.

The latest round of jitters over high prices for tech shares sent South Korea's Kospi down nearly 4%. Oil prices sank more than $1 a barrel.

Bitcoin was trading near $71,000 early Thursday, down 7.3% after crashing to about $69,000 earlier in the day, according to CoinDesk. That's its lowest level since November 2024.

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have dropped after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, said in answer to questions in the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that he did not have the authority to order banks to buy such assets.

In share trading, Germany's DAX slipp...