Before Market Opens: 9 things to know at 9 am on September 23, 2022

Major Wall Street indexes ended lower on Thursday, falling for a third straight session as investors reacted to the Federal Reserve's latest aggressive move to rein in inflation by selling growth stocks, including technology companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 107.1 points, or 0.35%, to 30,076.68, the S&P 500 lost 31.94 points, or 0.84%, to 3,757.99 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 153.39 points, or 1.37%, to 11,066.81.

Asia-Pacific shares slipped on Friday as investors continue to weigh the Federal Reserve’s aggressive stance. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 opened slightly higher but gave up gains to fall 1.16% on its return to trade after a holiday on Thursday. South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.68%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.18%. Japan markets were closed for a holiday Friday.

At 8:20 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 101 points or 0.6 percent lower at 17,538, indicating a weak opening for the Indian markets.

Frontline indices the Sensex and the Nifty fell for the second consecutive session on September 22 amid weak global cues after the Fed rate hike. Equity barometer the Sensex opened 383 points lower at 59,073.84 and swung 625 points in intraday trade between the high and low of 59,457.58 and 58,832.78 respectively. The index closed with a loss of 337 points, or 0.57%, at 59,119.72 while the Nifty ended 89 points, or 0.50%, lower at 17,629.80.

Oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Friday on the prospect that a stalled Iran nuclear agreement and Moscow's new mobilization campaign in its invasion of Ukraine would further restrict global supplies. Brent crude futures gained 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $90.62 per barrel by 0020 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 22 cents to $83.71 per barrel. Oil edged up after a senior US State Department official said that efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have stalled due to Tehran's insistence on the closure of the UN nuclear watchdog's investigations.

The US current account deficit narrowed sharply in the second quarter amid a surge in goods exports, data showed on Thursday. The Commerce Department said that the current account deficit, which measures the flow of goods, services and investments into and out of the country, contracted 11.1% to $251.1 billion last quarter. The current account gap represented 4.0% of gross domestic product, down from 4.6% in the January-March quarter. The deficit peaked at 6.3% of GDP in the fourth quarter of 2005.

The rupee plunged 89 paise to hit a record low of 80.87 in the previous session as the dollar remained high after the Fed hike.

Gold prices were flat on Friday as the dollar held close to its recent peak while the likelihood of more aggressive interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve also weighed on the appeal for non-yielding bullion, reported news agency Reuters.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold shares worth ₹2,509.55 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth ₹263.07 crore on September 22, as per provisional data available on the NSE.