Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on August 26, 2022

The Wall Street ended sharply higher on Thursday, lifted by gains in Nvidia and other technology-related stocks as investors focused on the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole conference for clues about the central bank's policy outlook. The S&P 500 climbed 1.41% to end the session at 4,199.12 points. The Nasdaq gained 1.67% to 12,639.27 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.98% to 33,291.78 points.

Shares in the Asia-Pacific rose on Friday as investors look ahead to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole later stateside. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.81% while the Topix added 0.45%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.19%. The Kospi in South Korea advanced 0.53%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.13% higher.

Equity benchmarks ended lower on Thursday as a fag-end sell-off wiped out early gains, with IT and bank stocks playing spoilsport amid monthly derivatives expiry. After remaining in the positive territory for most part of the trade, the BSE Sensex suddenly came under selling pressure during the last half-hour of the session, declining 310.71 points or 0.53 per cent to settle at 58,774.72. During the day, it hit a high of 59,484.35 and a low of 58,666.41. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty dropped 82.50 points or 0.47 per cent to end at 17,522.45.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 103 points or 0.6 percent higher at 17,691, indicating a strong opening for the Indian markets.

Oil prices rose in early trade on Friday on signs of improving fuel demand, though gains were capped as the market awaited clues from the US Federal Reserve chairman on the outlook for rate hikes in a speech later in the day. Brent crude futures climbed 46 cents, or 0.5%, to $99.80 a barrel at 0051 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures also rose 48 cents, or 0.5%, to $93.00 a barrel. Both slumped about $2 on Thursday.

The US economy contracted at a more moderate pace than initially thought in the second quarter as consumer spending blunted some of the drag from a sharp slowdown in inventory accumulation, dispelling fears that a recession was underway. Gross domestic product shrank at a 0.6% annualized rate last quarter, the government said in its second estimate of GDP. That was an upward revision from the previously estimated 0.9% pace of decline. The economy contracted at a 1.6% rate in the first quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had expected GDP would be revised slightly up to show output falling at a 0.8% rate.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth ₹369.06 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net sold shares worth ₹334.31 crore on August 25, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

The rupee declined by 6 paise to close at 79.92 against the US dollar on Thursday due to firm crude oil prices and losses in the domestic equity markets.

Spot gold lost 0.22 percent to $1,767.50 per ounce as of 8:05 am on Friday.