Before Market Opens Today: 9 things to know at 9 am on February 10, 2023

US stock indexes ended lower on Thursday, erasing earlier gains as Treasury yields rose after an auction of 30-year bonds went poorly and overshadowed strong earnings from corporate giants like Disney and PepsiCo. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 249.13 points on Thursday, or 0.73 percent, to 33,699.88, the S&P 500 lost 36.36 points, or 0.88 percent, to 4,081.5 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 120.94 points, or 1.02 percent, to 11,789.58.

Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Friday, following moves on Wall Street and ahead of China’s inflation data. Economists polled by Reuters are expecting to see core prices in China rise by 2.2 percent on an annualized basis. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.68 percent in its first hour of trade as investors await the Reserve Bank of Australia’s statement on monetary policy. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.1 percent while the Topix shed 0.23 percent. The Kospi in South Korea fell 0.76 percent.

Gains in shares of select IT and finance heavyweights such as Infosys, Bajaj Finance and TCS, helped key equity indices the Sensex and the Nifty close in the green on February 9. The 30-share pack ended 142 points, or 0.23 percent, higher at 60,806.22. Nifty closed the day at 17,893.45, up 22 points, or 0.12 percent. Shares of Infosys, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, TCS and Larsen & Toubro were the top contributors to the rise in Sensex.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 95 points or 0.5 percent lower at 17,835, indicating a negative opening for the Indian markets. 

Crude prices eased on Thursday as oil infrastructure appeared to have escaped serious damage from the earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria, while US inventories swelled and investors worried about Federal Reserve rate hikes. Brent crude settled at $84.50 a barrel, losing 59 cents, or 0.7 percent. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled at $78.06 a barrel, down 41 cents, or 0.5 percent. Both benchmarks have gained more than 5 percent so far this week.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth ₹144.73 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) offloaded shares worth ₹205.25 crore on February 9, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

The rupee slipped 2 paise to end at 82.52 per dollar in the previous session as the dollar remained elevated against its peers. The dollar looked set for a weekly gain against its peers.

The US dollar fell across the board on Thursday, moving in line with lower Treasury yields, as investors stuck to their views that the Federal Reserve does not need to raise interest rates any more than it should as inflation is starting to get under control. The euro, the biggest component in the dollar index, climbed 0.2 percent as well to $1.0733, while sterling rose 0.3 percent against the greenback to $1.2114, with both boosted by improving risk sentiment across markets. The dollar rose 0.1 percent against the Japanese yen to 131.575 yen.

Gold prices were little changed on Friday and were heading for their second straight weekly decline, as prospects of more interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve dented bullion's appeal.