Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on July 8, 2022

Wall Street benchmarks ended up on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq recording their fourth successive higher closes, as traders leaned in to US equities after the Federal Reserve hinted at a more tempered program of interest rate hikes. US stock markets have stabilised in July after a brutal selloff in the first half against the backdrop of a surge in inflation, the Ukraine conflict and the Fed's pivot away from easy-money policy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 346.87 points, or 1.12 percent, to 31,384.55, the S&P 500 gained 57.54 points, or 1.50 percent, to 3,902.62 and the Nasdaq Composite added 259.49 points, or 2.28 percent, to 11,621.35.

Asia-Pacific markets opened higher on Friday as investors look ahead to the release of US jobs data for June. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.54 percent, while the Topix index gained 0.34 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.51 percent. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.91 percent.

Indian benchmarks indices rose for a second straight session on Thursday led by robust buying in consumption, metal and bank stocks amid a bullish trend overseas. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 427.49 points or 0.80 percent to close at 54,178.46. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 143.10 points or 0.89 percent to 16,132.90.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 125 points or 0.785 percent higher at 16,258 indicating a gap-up openning for the Indian markets.

Oil prices slipped in early Asian trade on Friday, following a rebound in the previous session, as investors remained torn between worries over tight global supplies and fears a recession could dampen oil demand. Brent crude futures fell 39 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $104.26 a barrel by 0013 GMT, dropping away from a near 4 percent rebound on Thursday. US West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 35 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $102.38 a barrel, having settled 4.2 percent higher a day earlier.

The first quarter earnings for FY23 will kick start today with India’s largest IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announcing its Q1 earnings. Most analysts expect healthy revenue growth for the Indian IT services sector that was aided by a secular demand environment, healthy deal wins, and mergers and acquisitions. However, adverse cross-currency and seasonality are key headwinds.

Gold prices steadied but were on course to post their biggest weekly drop in more than a month due to gains in the dollar.

The rupee ended 12 paise higher at 79.18 in the previous session on July 7. Analysts say newly unveiled measures from RBI improved sentiments and also falling oil prices boosted the rupee’s appeal.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have offloaded shares worth ₹925.22 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth ₹980.59 crore on July 7, as per provisional data available on the NSE.