Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on May 27, 2022

Wall Street closed higher with the three main US indices positioned for their biggest weekly gains since mid-March after minutes from the US Federal Reserve's May meeting indicated the central bank would remain flexible and might pause rate hikes later in the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 516.91 points, or 1.61 percent, to 32,637.19; the S&P 500 gained 79.11 points, or 1.99 percent, to 4,057.84; and the Nasdaq Composite added 305.91 points, or 2.68 percent, to 11,740.65.

Shares in Asia-Pacific rose in Friday morning trade, with investors monitoring shares of Alibaba in Hong Kong after the Chinese tech giant posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday. The Nikkei 225 in Japan gained 0.88 percent as shares of conglomerate SoftBank Group surged 4.47 percent. The Topix index advanced 0.62 percent. South Korea’s Kospi also jumped 1.15 percent. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.07 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded 1.57 percent higher.

Indian equity benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty ended in the green amid mixed global cues on May 26, snapping the losing run of the last three consecutive sessions even as worries over slowing economies and aggressive rate hikes persisted. Sensex closed with a gain of 503 points, or 0.94 percent, at 54,252.53 with 24 stocks in the green and six stocks in the red. Nifty50 closed with a gain of 144 points, or 0.90 percent at 16,170.15.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 78 points or 0.5 percent higher at 16,265, indicating a positive opening for the Indian markets.

Oil prices eased slightly in early Asian trade on Friday, after surging to a two-month high in the previous session as investors focused on signs of tight global supply. Brent crude futures fell 11 cents to $117.29 a barrel by 0:08 GMT. WTI crude futures for July delivery fell 19 cents to $113.90 a barrel. Prices have gained about 50 percent so far this year.

Upcoming release of official data for economic performance is likely to register a 2.7 percent growth for the January-March period, and the FY22 growth is expected to be 8.5 percent, economists at SBI said on Thursday. We believe the GDP projection for Q4 FY22 is clouded by significant uncertainties. For example, even a one per cent downward revision in Q1 GDP estimates of FY22 from 20.3 percent, all other things remaining unchanged, could push Q4 GDP growth to 3.8 percent, they noted.

The rupee slipped 5 paise to close at 77.58 per dollar in the previous session on May 26. Rupee's fall was capped by gains in the equity market.

Gold gained slightly amid the soft US pending home sales data, GDP data and weakness in the dollar index. Gold June futures contract settled at $1847.60 per troy ounce with a gain of 0.07 percent. The US Commerce Department said in its preliminary reading that US Q1 GDP fell 1.5 percent versus markets expectation of a contraction of 1.3 percent. This is the second estimate of US GDP; the initial assessment showed the economy contracting by 1.4 percent.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold Indian shares worth ₹1,597.84 crore on Thursday, according to provisional exchange data. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made net purchases worth ₹2,906.46 crore.