Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on June 1, 2022

Wall Street's three major indexes closed lower on Tuesday, following a rally last week, as volatile oil markets kept soaring inflation in focus and investors reacted to hawkish comments from a Federal Reserve official. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 222.84 points, or 0.67 percent, to 32,990.12, the S&P 500 lost 26.09 points, or 0.63 percent, to 4,132.15 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 49.74 points, or 0.41 percent, to 12,081.39.

Shares in Asia-Pacific largely rose in Wednesday morning trade, with investors watching for market reaction to the release of a private survey on Chinese factory activity for May. Mainland Chinese stocks edged higher, with the Shanghai Composite rising 0.1 percent, while the Shenzhen Component was up fractionally. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.12 percent. The Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.62 percent, while the Topix index advanced 1.16 percent. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.23 percent.

Indian equity benchmark indices snapped a three-day gaining streak on Tuesday amid tepid global mood. The Sensex fell 359.3 points or 0.6 percent to end at 55,566.4 and the Nifty50 settled at 16,584.6, down 76.9 points or 0.5 percent from its previous close.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 140 points or 0.8 percent lower at 16,511, indicating a weak opening for the Indian markets.

Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Wednesday after European Union leaders agreed to a partial and phased ban on Russian oil and China ended its Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai. Brent crude for August delivery was up 78 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $116.38 a barrel at 0037 GMT. The front-month contract for July delivery expired on Tuesday at $122.84 a barrel, up 1 percent. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 63 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $115.30 a barrel. Both benchmarks ended the month of May higher, marking the sixth straight month of rising prices.

India's GDP is estimated to have grown by 8.7 percent in FY22 after growth slid to 4.1 percent in the January-March quarter (Q4FY22), data released on May 31 by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation showed. Growth slowed down in the first quarter of the calendar year 2022 because of the hit to activity from the Omicron variant-led third COVID-19 wave and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The rupee fell 9 paise to close at 77.64 against the dollar in the previous session on May 31. The US dollar strengthened on May 31 while Treasury yields also climbed amid concerns over a further acceleration in global inflation.

Gold prices suffered losses in the previous session amid sharp rise in the dollar index and US bond yields. Gold August futures contract settled at $1848.40 per troy ounce with a loss of 0.48 percent.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold ₹1,003.56 crore worth of shares, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) remained net buyers, to the tune of ₹1,845.15 crore worth of shares on May 31, as per provisional data available on the NSE.