Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on January 18, 2023

The Dow fell more than 1 percent on Tuesday as weak earnings from Goldman Sachs dragged the index lower, but a jump in Tesla shares helped the Nasdaq stay postive as the corporate earnings season took center stage. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 391.76 points, or 1.14 percent, to 33,910.85 and the S&P 500 lost 8.12 points, or 0.20 percent, to 3,990.97. The Nasdaq Composite added 15.96 points, or 0.14 percent, to 11,095.11

Asia-Pacific shares rose on Wednesday as investors await the outcome of the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy meeting. Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.66 percent in its first hour of trade, and the Topix edged up 0.39 percent as Japan’s central bank enters its second day of monetary policy discussions, which comes amid high government bond yields and a strong yen with some economists expecting the central bank to scrap its yield curve control policy.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 82 points or 0.45 percent higher at 18,158, indicating a positive opening for the Indian markets. 

Market benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty ended in the green on January 17 led by gains in shares of index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, HDFC twins and Larsen & Toubro. Global cues were mostly weak after China reported weak fourth-quarter economic data, raising concern over a global economic slowdown. Sensex ended 563 points, or 0.94 percent, higher at 60,655.72 while the Nifty closed at 18,053.30, up 158 points, or 0.89 percent.

Oil prices settled higher on Tuesday in choppy trading after China posted weak but expectation-beating annual economic growth data and on hopes that a recent shift in its Covid-19 policy will boost fuel demand. Brent crude futures settled up $1.46, or 1.7 percent, to $85.92 while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled up 32 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $80.18.

Japanese 10-year government bond yields topped the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) policy ceiling for a third straight session on Tuesday amid swirling speculation that policymakers could tweak stimulus settings when a two-day meeting wraps up on Wednesday. The 10-year JGB yield rose 0.5 basis point to 0.505 percent as of 0820 GMT, although only one trade had been executed so far at 0136 GMT. Benchmark 10-year JGB futures advanced just 0.2 yen to end the session at 144.84, making marginal gains for a second day after dipping to the lowest since April 2014 on Friday.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) turned net buyers for the first time in last 18 straight sessions, to the tune of ₹211.06 crore worth shares, while domestic institutional investors (DII) have net purchased shares worth ₹90.81 crore on January 17, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

The rupee ended 15 paise lower at 81.76 per dollar in the previous session after the greenback witnessed some buying. Gains in domestic equity market capped the sharp losses for the rupee.

Gold prices were flat on Wednesday as the dollar held firm, although expectations of a slower pace of interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve limited losses in zero-yielding bullion, reported Reuters.