Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on April 11, 2022

The Dow rose and the S&P 500 ended lower in choppy trade on Friday, as beaten-down bank shares gained and investors grappled with how best to deal with an economy that could skid as the Federal Reserve moves to aggressively tackle inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 137.55 points, or 0.4 percent, to 34,721.12, the S&P 500 lost 11.93 points, or 0.27 percent, to 4,488.28 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 186.30 points, or 1.34 percent, to 13,711.00. For the week, the S&P fell 1.16 percent, the Dow lost 0.28 percent and the Nasdaq shed 3.86 percent, as the index was hit after Fed officials raised concerns about rapid rate hikes causing a slowdown.

Asian shares slipped on Monday ahead of a week thronging with central bank meetings and US inflation data, while the euro eked out a gain on relief the far right did not win the first round of the French presidential elections. The Nikkei 225 in Japan slipped 0.61% in early trade while the Topix index shed 0.35 percent. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.47 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.1 percent.

Indian equity benchmarks made a comeback on Friday amid broad-based gains, after the RBI left key rates unchanged and continued with its 'accommodative' stance at the end of a bi-monthly review. Gains across sectors, led by financial, oil & gas and metal shares, pushed the headline indices higher. The Sensex rose 412.2 points or 0.7 percent to end at 59,447.2 and the Nifty50 settled at 17,784.4, up 144.8 points or 0.8 percent from its previous close.

Oil prices slipped in early Asian trading, following the second straight weekly decline after world consumers announced plans to release crude from strategic stocks and as Chinese lockdowns continued. As of 2202 GMT, Brent crude fell 38 cents to $102.40 a barrel while US crude lost 16 cents to $98.18. Last week, Brent dropped 1.5 percent, while the US West Texas Intermediate slid 1 percent. For several weeks, the benchmarks have been at their most volatile since June 2020.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold Indian shares worth Rs575 crore on Friday, data shows. Net sales by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) stood at ₹16.5 crore.

The Indian currency ended 5 paise higher at 75.91 per dollar in the previous session on April 8. The gains were capped as the dollar index reached fresh two year highs after the Federal Reserve maintained its hawkish stance in FOMC meeting minutes. Analysts expect the rupee to gyrate in the range of 75.20-76.50 in the near term.

Gold settled on a positive note in the international markets on April 8. Gold June futures contract settled at $1,948.40 per troy ounce, up by 0.55 percent. Gold gained last week despite strength in the dollar index and the US bond yields. The yellow metal rose due to safe haven demand amid Russia-Ukraine conflicts, slower global growth prospects and fear of rising global inflations.

The Reserve Bank of India Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has kept policy rates unchanged yet again – for the 11th time in a row on Friday. However, economists said that the MPC may gradually hike policy rates later this year to fight rising inflation.

IT Major Tata Consultancy Services and other firms like Delta Corp, Hathway Bhawani Cabletel and Datacom, Kesoram Industries will report their March quarter earnings today.