Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on August 23, 2022

Wall Street ended sharply lower on Monday as investors fretted about a US Federal Reserve gathering later this week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that is expected to reinforce a strong commitment by the central bank to stamp out inflation. All 11 S&P 500 sector indexes declined, led lower by consumer discretionary, down 2.84 percent, followed by a 2.78 percent loss in information technology. The S&P 500 declined 2.14 percent to end the session at 4,137.99 points. The Nasdaq declined 2.55 percent to 12,381.57 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.91 percent to 33,063.61 points.

Asia-Pacific traded lower early Tuesday morning after major indexes on Wall Street finished their worst day since June amid mounting rate hike concerns. Japan’s Topix traded 0.82 percent lower, Nikkei 225 fell 1 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.4 percent. S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.46 percent.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 71 points or 0.4 percent lower at 17,419, indicating a weak opening for the Indian markets.

Indian markets followed global trending on Monday and closed sharply lower ahead of US Federal Reserve meeting. Equity benchmarks continued to remain weak on Monday with the Sensex and Nifty falling over 1 percent each, dragged down by bank stocks and negative global market trends. The 30-share BSE Sensex, which had started the trade on a weak note, tumbled 872.28 points or 1.46 percent to settle at 58,773.87. During the day, it slumped 941.04 points or 1.57 percent to 58,705.11.

Oil prices edged up on Tuesday, after Saudi Arabia warned that OPEC could cut output to correct a recent drop in oil futures. Brent crude futures rose 32 cents to $96.80 a barrel by 0004 GMT, after a choppy session on Monday when they dropped by more than $4 before paring losses to trade near flat. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 37 cents to $90.73 a barrel by 0004 GMT.

The Reserve Bank's rate-setting panel is likely to opt for slowing down the pace of hikes and increase the repo rate by 0.25 percent in September, Deutsche Bank said on Monday. In a report, the Germany-based bank said the RBI will respond with a slower pace of rate hikes from here, basing the expectation on the recently released minutes of the last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). It pointed to Governor Shaktikanta Das' statement, where he wrote that actions will be calibrated, measured and nimble as one of the most important factors.

The rupee ended 9 paise lower at 79.87 per dollar in the previous session on August 22. Recovery in crude oil prices and gains in the dollar index are the negatives for the rupee. Analysts expect the rupee to trade in a range of 80.10 and 79.20 in the short term.

Gold prices have been volatile of late amid the dollar's rise and anticipation of more rate hikes. However, concerns over global economic slowdown are supporting the yellow metal.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold shares worth ₹453.77 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net offloaded shares worth ₹85.06 crore on August 22, as per provisional data available on the NSE.