Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on May 6, 2022

All three main Wall Street benchmarks erased gains made during a relief rally on May 4, with the Nasdaq posting its biggest one-day percentage decline since June 2020 and its lowest finish since November 2020. The Dow's decline was its worst daily performance since October 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,063.09 points, or 3.12 percent, to 32,997.97, the S&P 500 lost 153.3 points, or 3.56 percent, to 4,146.87 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 647.17 points, or 4.99 percent, to 12,317.69.

Shares in Asia-Pacific largely declined in the May 6 morning trade after an overnight drop on Wall Street sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst day since 2020. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led losses regionally as it fell 2.45 percent. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite slipped 1.41% while the Shenzhen Component shed 1.728 percent. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dipped 0.13 percent. The Topix index traded 0.34 percent higher. Japanese stocks returned to trade on May 6 after being closed for holidays much of this week.

Market benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty ended flat on May 5 as traders squared off positions a day after the RBI and US Fed raised rates. Sensex ended 33 points, or 0.06 percent, up at 55,702.23. Nifty ended the day at 16,682.65, up 5 points or 0.03 percent.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 238 points or 1.4 percent lower at 16,443, indicating a gap-down opening for the Indian markets.

Oil prices dipped at the start of Asian trade on May 6 as worries about an economic downturn that could dampen demand for crude vied with concerns over new sanctions from the European Union against Russia, including an embargo on crude oil. Brent futures fell 37 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $110.53 a barrel by 0015 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 33 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $107.93 a barrel.

The rupee closed 16 paise higher at 76.26 on May 5. The rupee is likely to experience some pressure as the dollar looked on course for a fifth week of gains against its major global peers on May 6.

Gold prices edged lower on May 6 and looked set to fall for a third straight week, weighed down by a robust dollar and rising yields, reported Reuters.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold Indian shares worth ₹2,074.7 crore on Thursday, according to provisional exchange data. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth ₹2,229.3 crore.

The Bank of England sent a stark warning that Britain risks a double-whammy of a recession and inflation above 10 percent as it raised interest rates on May 5 to their highest since 2009, hiking by quarter of a percentage point to 1 percent. The pound fell by more than a cent against the US dollar to hit its lowest level since mid-2020, below $1.24, as the gloominess of the BoE's new forecasts for the world's fifth-largest economy caught investors by surprise.