Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on February 20, 2023

The S&P 500 ended lower on Friday, weighed down by Microsoft and Nvidia as investors worried that inflation and a strong US economy could put the Federal Reserve on pace for more interest rate hikes. The see-saw session on Wall Street followed economic data this week that pointed to elevated inflation, a tight job market and resilience in consumer spending, giving the Fed more room for to raise borrowing costs. The S&P 500 declined 0.28 percent to end the session at 4,079.09 points. The Nasdaq fell 0.58 percent to 11,787.27 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.39 percent to 33,826.69 points.

Asian shares got off to a subdued start on Monday as a US holiday made for slow trading ahead of minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting and a reading on core inflation that could add to the risk of interest rates heading higher for longer. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was largely flat, after sliding 2.2 percent last week. Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.2 percent and South Korea 0.4 percent.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 34 points or 0.19 percent higher at 17,971, indicating a positive opening for the Indian markets. 

Domestic equity benchmarks ended in the red, snapping their three-day winning run, on February 17 after an all-around selling as investors remained concerned over rising inflation, rate hikes, softer quarterly earnings of India Inc. and economic growth. Sensex ended 317 points, or 0.52 percent, lower at 61,002.57, while, Nifty50 closed at 17,944.20, down 92 points, or 0.51 percent.

Oil prices were little changed in early Asian trade on Monday, after settling down $2 a barrel on Friday, as rising supplies in the United States and forecasts of more interest rate hikes cooled optimism over China's demand recovery.

Foreign investors seem to have shifted their focus back on the Indian equity markets as they turned net buyers last week with an investment of over ₹7,600 crore. This came following a net outflow of ₹3,920 crore by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from equities in the preceding week (February 7-12), data with the depositories showed. FPIs have been net sellers since the beginning of the year and till February 10, they were net sellers to the tune of ₹38,524 crore in 2023, including ₹28,852 crore in January amid concerns of the continuing rate hikes by the major central banks globally to curb in inflation.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth ₹624.61 crore after consistent buying in previous five sessions, while domestic institutional investors (DII) offloaded shares worth ₹85.29 crore on February 17, NSE's provisional data showed.

The rupee fell 11 paise to end at 82.83 per dollar in the previous session as the greenback strengthened after robust US economic data, which raised expectations that US Federal Reserve may hold interest rates higher for longer.

Gold prices fell on Monday, weighed down by a stronger dollar and after recent US economic data raised worries that the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates further, reported Reuters.