Before Market Opens: From Elon Musk to US Dollar, 9 things to know at 9 am on January 24, 2023

Elon Musk faces jury for his tweets on Tesla. Wall Street closed sharply higher on Monday, fuelled by surging technology stocks as investors began an earnings-heavy week with a renewed enthusiasm for market-leading momentum stocks that were battered last year. All three major stock indices extended Friday's gains, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the pack, boosted by semiconductor shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 254.07 points, or 0.76 percent, to 33,629.56, the S&P 500 gained 47.2 points, or 1.19 percent, to 4,019.81 and the Nasdaq Composite added 223.98 points, or 2.01 percent, to 11,364.41.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific traded higher as Lunar New Year holidays were observed in most of the region. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.12 percent in early trade, following Wall Street’s tech-fuelled rally ahead of the major earnings reports. The Nikkei 225 climbed 1.17 percent and the Topix was up 0.88 percent.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 93 points or 0.5 percent higher at 18,240, indicating a gap up opening for the Indian markets. 

The Sensex and the Nifty50 snapped their two-day losing run, tracking positive global cues as reports emerged that the US Federal Reserve may slow interest-rate increases for the second straight time on January 31-February 1 meeting. Sensex closed at 60,941.67, up 320 points, or 0.53 percent. The Nifty50 ended at 18,118.55, up 91 points, or 0.50 percent.

Oil prices settled mixed on Monday, retreating as investors cashed in on a jump to a seven-week high on optimism about a possible recovery in demand of top oil importer China as the economy recovers this year from pandemic lockdowns. Brent crude settled 48 cents higher at $88.11 a barrel. The session high was $89.09 a barrel, the highest since December 1. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at $81.66 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) have net-sold shares worth ₹219.87 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) have net-bought shares worth ₹434.96 crore on January 23, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Maruti Suzuki India, HDFC Asset Management Company, Colgate-Palmolive, Macrotech Developers, Nazara Technologies, Pidilite Industries, PNB Housing Finance, SBI Cards and Payment Services, TVS Motor Company, United Spirits, etc are likely to announce their third-quarter earnings on January 24.

The rupee fell 20 paise to close as 81.37 against the US dollar on Monday amid rise in crude prices and unabated foreign fund outflow.

Spot gold rose 0.38 percent to $1,936.10 per ounce as of 7:30 am on Tuesday.