Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on May 19, 2022

Wall Street ended sharply lower on Wednesday, with Target losing around a quarter of its stock market value and highlighting worries about the US economy after the retailer became the latest victim of surging prices. It was the worst one-day loss for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average since June 2020. The S&P 500 declined 4.04 percent to end the session at 3,923.68 points. The Nasdaq declined 4.73 percent to 11,418.15 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 3.57 percent to 31,490.07 points.

Asian stocks tracked a steep Wall Street selloff on Thursday, as investors fretted over rising global inflation, China's zero-COVID policy and the Ukraine war, while the safe-haven dollar held most of its strong overnight gains. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 2 percent in early Asian trading hours, the first daily decline in a week. Japan's Nikkei tumbled 2.4 percent.

Headline indices the Sensex and the Nifty ended lower on May 18, a day after witnessing sharp gains, as concerns over inflation, aggressive hikes and geopolitical tensions kept the risk appetite of investors fragile. Sensex ended 110 points, or 0.20 percent, lower at 54,208.53. Nifty50 closed 19 points, or 0.12 percent, lower at 16,240.30.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 290 points or 1.8 percent lower at 15,947, indicating a gap-down opening for the Indian markets.

Oil prices opened lower in early Asian trade on Thursday after the European Union's efforts to enact a ban on Russian oil imports, a move that would tighten global supply, ran into resistance from member country Hungary. Brent crude futures fell 35 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $113.89 a barrel at 0004 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 52 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $113.68 a barrel.

UK inflation surged last month to its highest annual rate since 1982, pressuring finance minister Rishi Sunak to offer more help for households and the Bank of England to keep raising interest rates despite a risk of recession. Consumer price inflation hit 9 percent in April, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, surpassing the peaks of the early 1990s recession that many Britons remember for sky-high interest rates and widespread mortgage defaults.

The rupee ended 2 paise lower at 77.58 per dollar on May 18 as the dollar acquired strength against its global peers. Weakness in equities and foreign capital outflow also weighed on the domestic currency.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold Indian shares worth ₹1,254.64 crore on Wednesday, according to provisional exchange data. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made net purchases worth ₹375.61 crore.

Gold suffered losses in international markets as the dollar rose, denting the appeal of the yellow metal. Gold June futures contract settled at $1815.90 per troy ounce with a loss of 0.16 percent.