Before Stock Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on September 16, 2022

Wall Street indices were firmly in the red after a choppy start to Thursday's session while bond yields rose as investors digested economic data that provided the Federal Reserve little reason to ease its aggressive interest rate hiking cycle. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 173.07 points, or 0.56 percent, to 30,962.02; the S&P 500 lost 44.69 points, or 1.13 percent, to 3,901.32 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 167.32 points, or 1.43 percent, to 11,552.36.

Shares in the Asia-Pacific fell Friday as investors digest US economic data and look ahead to the release of China’s industrial production and retail sales figures for August. The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.84 percent in early trade, and the Topix index slipped 0.51 percent. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.38 percent. South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.73 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.3 percent lower.

Headline indices the Sensex and the Nifty ended in the red for the second consecutive session on September 15 amid mixed global cues. Sensex closed 413 points, or 0.68%, lower at 59,934.01. The Nifty50 ended the day with a loss of 126 points, or 0.70%, at 17,877.40.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 111 points or 0.6 percent lower at 17,767, indicating a gap down opening for the Indian markets.

Oil fell more than 2 percent on Thursday as expectations of weaker demand and a strong US dollar ahead of a potentially large interest rate increase outweighed supply concerns. The International Energy Agency said this week oil demand growth would grind to a halt in the fourth quarter. The dollar held near recent peaks, supported by expectations the US Federal Reserve will continue to tighten policy. Brent crude ended at $90.84, for a loss of 3.46 percent. US West Texas Intermediate crude settled $3.38, or 3.8 percent, lower at $85.10 per barrel.

Fitch Ratings has slashed its growth forecast for India for the current fiscal year to 7 percent from the previous estimate of 7.8 percent. The ratings agency also cut its GDP growth forecast for the next fiscal year to 6.7 percent from the earlier estimate of 7.4 percent, it said on September 14. Fitch's latest growth estimate for FY23 is lower than the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) forecast of 7.2 percent.

Gold prices traded near a two-year low in global markets on September 16 and were set for a weekly fall as an elevated dollar and prospects of aggressive US rate hikes dented bullion's appeal, reported news agency Reuters.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold shares worth ₹1,270.68 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net offloaded shares worth ₹928.86 crore on September 15, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

The rupee fell 26 paise to settle at 79.70 per dollar in the previous session amid dollar's gain and weakness in the domestic equity market.