Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on May 2, 2022

Wall Street slid on Friday to its deepest daily losses since 2020, as Amazon slumped following a gloomy quarterly report, and as the biggest surge in monthly inflation since 2005 spooked investors already worried about rising interest rates. The, S&P 500 declined 3.63% to end the session at 4,131.93 points. The Nasdaq declined 4.17% to 12,334.64 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 2.77% to 32,977.21 points.

Shares in Asia-Pacific were lower in Monday morning trade, with data released over the weekend showing Chinese factory activity contracted in April. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.54% as shares of robot maker Fanuc dropped about 3%. The Topix index also shed 0.38%. South Korea’s Kospi traded 0.5% lower. Australia stocks declined, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling 1.41%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 0.55% lower.

Key equity indices the Sensex and the Nifty ended in the red on April 29 as investors booked profit across sectors keeping the near-term uncertainty in mind. Sensex ended with a cut of 460 points, or 0.80 percent, to settle at 57,060.87 while the Nifty index ended at 17,102.55, down 143 points, or 0.83 percent.

Oil prices fell on Monday in holiday-sapped trade in Asia as concerns about slowing economic growth in China, the world's top oil importer, outweighed fears of potential supply disruptions from a looming European Union ban on Russian crude. Brent crude futures fell $1.21, or 1.1%, to $105.93 a barrel at 0205 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 99 cents, or 1%, to $103.70 a barrel. Markets in Japan, India and across Southeast Asia were closed for public holidays on Monday.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 230 points or 1.3 percent lower at 16,903, indicating a gap-down opening for the Indian markets.

The rupee ended 6 paise higher at 76.43 per dollar in the previous session. The rupee's gains were capped amid weakness in domestic equities.

Gold settled higher in the international markets in the previous session on April 29. Gold June futures contract settled at $1,896.90 per troy ounce, up by 0.30 percent. Gold's gain was capped by the rise in dollar index. The dollar index hit 20 year highs and posted highest monthly gain in last seven years.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold Indian shares worth ₹3,648.3 crore on Friday, according to provisional exchange data. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth ₹3,490.3 crore.

It will take nearly 15 years for the Indian economy to make up for the losses it has incurred during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) report on currency and finance for FY22. Taking the actual growth rate of -6.6 percent for 2020-21, 8.9 percent for 2021-22 and assuming growth rate of 7.2 percent for 2022-23, and 7.5 percent beyond that, India is expected to overcome COVID-19 losses in 2034-35, the report, released on April 29, said.