Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on April 28, 2022

The S&P 500 ended higher on Wednesday following a steep drop the day before, with strong revenue forecasts from Microsoft and Visa helping to alleviate worries about slowing global economic growth and rising interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19% to end at 33,301.93 points, while the S&P 500 gained 0.21% to 4,183.92. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.01% to 12,488.93.

Asia-Pacific stocks were higher in Thursday morning trade, as investors in the region look ahead to the Bank of Japan’s latest monetary policy decision. The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose fractionally while the Topix index climbed 0.31%. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.32% while the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia gained 0.94%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.21% higher.

Indian indices ended lower on Wednesday following weakness in global peers. Back home, losses in banking and financial stocks, especially blue chips including Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv and ICICI Bank further dragged the sentiment. The Sensex ended 537 points lower at 56,819 while the broader Nifty lost 162 points to settle at 17,038.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 36 points or 0.2 percent higher at 17,095, indicating a positive opening for the Indian markets.

Oil prices dipped on Wednesday as a soaring dollar made barrels more expensive and as coronavirus outbreaks cloud the economic outlook in China, the world's biggest importer of crude oil. Brent crude futures fell by 4 cents to $104.95 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures dropped 25 cents to $101.45.

The rupee closed 5 paise higher at 76.53 in the previous session on April 27 amid gains in dollar index. As per media reports, the dollar index crossed 103 mark as geopolitical tensions are pushing other currencies lower.

Gold suffered losses on April 27 amid strong gains in the dollar index. Gold June futures contract settled at $1888.70 per troy ounce with a loss of 0.81 percent. The dollar index hit fresh two year highs and euro hit five year lows on April 27.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold Indian shares worth ₹4,064.5 crore on Wednesday, according to provisional exchange data. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made net purchases of ₹1,917.5 crore.

As per a Reuters report, "traders fretted that Musk may not have enough money sitting around to fund his $21 billion cash contribution and could decide against selling some of his Tesla shares to come up with it." He has backtracked before. Earlier this month, he decided at the last minute not to take up a seat on Twitter's board. In 2018, Musk tweeted that there was "funding secured" for a $72 billion deal to take Tesla private, but did not move ahead with an offer, the report further added.