Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on March 11, 2022

Wall Street resumed its slide on Thursday, ending in the red as inflation hit a four-decade high, cementing expectations that the US Federal Reserve would hike key interest rates at the conclusion of next week's monetary policy meeting to prevent the economy from overheating. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 112.18 points, or 0.34%, to 33,174.07, the S&P 500 lost 18.36 points, or 0.43%, to 4,259.52 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 125.58 points, or 0.95%, to 13,129.96.

Shares in Asia-Pacific slipped in Friday morning trade, tracking losses on Wall Street as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to keep investors cautious. The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell more than 1% in early trade, shedding some of its nearly 4% gain on Thursday. The Topix index slipped 1.23%. In South Korea, the Kospi dipped 0.78%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.4% in morning trade.

Oil prices settled about 2% lower on Thursday after a volatile session, a day after its biggest daily dive in two years, as Russia pledged to fulfill contractual obligations and some traders said supply disruption concerns were overdone. Brent futures fell $1.81, or 1.6%, to settle at $109.33 a barrel after gaining as much as 6.5% earlier in the session. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $2.68, or 2.5%, to settle at $106.02 a barrel, giving up over 5.7% of intraday gains.

Indian equity benchmarks extended gains to the third day in a row on Thursday, helped by financial, consumer and auto shares, as planned talks between Ukraine and Russia buoyed global risk-on sentiment. The Sensex ended 817 points higher at 55,464.4 and the Nifty50 settled at 16,594.9, up 249.6 points from its previous close.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 8 points or 0.05 percent lower at 16,515, indicating a flat-to-negative start for the Indian markets.

The rupee rose 26 paise to close at 76.31 against the US dollar on March 10. The currency gained strength as the market sentiment improved. Oil prices have slightly eased in the global markets which might give some relief to rupee.

Gold and silver prices gained on March 10 amid lack of progress on Russia-Ukraine de-escalation talks and rising inflation in the United States. Russia-Ukraine ceasefire talks failed on March 10 and supported safe-haven buying of precious metals. Investors also watched the US February month inflation data. Yearly inflation rose to 7.9 percent in February, its highest levels since January 1982.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukraine's Dmytro Kuleba met in Turkey in the highest-level talks since Putin ordered the invasion on February 24. However, there was no progress towards ending the war. Kuleba said afterwards that Lavrov had refused to promise to hold fire to allow aid distribution and the evacuation along humanitarian corridors of civilians trapped in Mariupol and elsewhere, news agency Reuters reported.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold Indian equities worth ₹1,981.2 crore on Thursday, according to provisional exchange data. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made net purchases worth ₹945.7 crore.