Before Market Opens: From asian markets to inflation; 9 things to know at 9 am on January 16, 2023

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at their highest levels in a month on Friday, with shares of JPMorgan Chase and other banks rising following their quarterly results, which kicked off the earnings season. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 112.64 points, or 0.33 percent, to 34,302.61, the S&P 500 gained 15.92 points, or 0.40 percent, to 3,999.09 and the Nasdaq Composite added 78.05 points, or 0.71 percent, to 11,079.16.

Asian shares started cautiously on Monday as investors waited nervously to see if the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will defend its super-sized stimulus policy at a pivotal meeting this week, while a holiday in US markets made for thin trading. Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.9 percent in early trading. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.2 percent, with hopes for a speedy Chinese reopening giving it a gain of 4.2 percent last week.

Signs of inflation gradually coming down and growth picking pace boosted the risk appetite of investors as equity benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty snapped a three-day losing run on January 13. Sensex ended 303 points, or 0.51 percent, higher at 60,261.18 while the Nifty50 closed at 17,956.60, up 98 points, or 0.55 percent.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 12 points or 0.1 percent higher at 18,051, indicating a flat but positive opening for the Indian markets. 

Oil prices dipped in early Asian trade on Monday, but held close to the highest levels since the start of the year on optimism that China’s reopening will lift fuel demand at the world’s top crude importer. Brent Crude fell 36 cents, or 0.4%, to $84.92 a barrel by 0116 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $79.65 a barrel, down 21 cents, or 0.3%, amid thin trade during a U.S. public holiday.

HDFC Bank, the country’s largest private-sector lender, on January 14 reported strong double-digit growth in its net profit and a healthy jump in consolidated advances. The lender reported a 19.9 percent jump in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 2022. Beating market estimates, it reported a net profit of ₹12,698 crore, an increase of 18.5 percent over the quarter ended December 31, 2022. The bank's December quarter net revenue grew by 18.3 percent to ₹31,488 crore from ₹26,627 crore last year.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) have net sold shares worth ₹2,422.39 crore, continuing selling for 16th session in a row, but domestic institutional investors (DII) have managed to offset the FII outflow, to major extent, by net buying shares worth ₹1,953.40 crore on January 13, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

The rupee jumped 22 paise to a five-week high at 81.33 per dollar in the previous session on robust domestic macroeconomic data. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the US dollar struggled to recover from its decline after last week's selloff on data showing that the US consumer prices fell for the first time in more than two and a half years in December.

Gold held near nine-month highs on Monday, supported by expectations that the US Fed will slow down on interest rate hikes. Lower rates tend to be beneficial for gold as they decrease the opportunity cost of holding the non-yielding bullion and weigh on the dollar.