Indian stock market: 8 key things that changed for market overnight – Gift Nifty, Dow crosses 40,000 to jobless claims

Indian stock market: The domestic equity market indices are expected to open on a cautious note Friday tracking a weak trend in the global peers.

Asian markets traded lower, while the US stock market ended in the red overnight after weekly jobless claims data. The Dow Jones crossed the 40,000-mark during the day before paring gains.

On Thursday, the Indian stock market indices ended ended almost a percent higher each led by fag-end buying across sectors amid mixed global cues.

The Sensex surged 676.69 points, or 0.93%, to close at 73,663.72, while the Nifty 50 settled 203.30 points, or 0.92%, higher at 22,403.85.

“Positive global cues and short covering on Nifty weekly expiry led to a rebound in domestic equities. Overall, we expect markets to witness a gradual recovery. However, concerns regarding consistent FII selling, India VIX still above 20 levels, ongoing general election polling and the outcome could keep volatility higher,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

Here are key global market cues for Sensex today:

Asian Markets

Asian markets traded lower tracking overnight losses on Wall Street and ahead of key economic data from China.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.78%, while the Topix dropped 0.33%. South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.11% and the Kosdaq plunged 1.66%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures indicated a higher opening.

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Gift Nifty Today

Gift Nifty was trading around 22,477 level, a premium of nearly 20 points from the Nifty futures’ previous close, indicating a flat-to-positive start for the Indian stock market indices.

Wall Street

The US stock market ended lower on Thursday after the Dow Jones reached an intraday high of 40,000 for the first time.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 38.62 points, or 0.10%, to 39,869.38, while the S&P 500 fell 11.05 points, or 0.21%, to 5,297.10. The Nasdaq Composite ended 44.07 points, or 0.26%, lower at 16,698.32.

Among stocks, Walmart shares rallied 7%, Deere share price declined 4.8% and Chubb shares rose 4.7%. GameStop share price plunged 30% and AMC Entertainment stock dropped 15%.

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Dow Surpasses 40,000

The Dow Jones industrial average crossed the 40,000 level on Thursday for the first time, a third straight record intraday high, amid hopes of US interest rate cuts and strong earnings. However, the blue-chip index pared gains and cooled from record highs to end slightly lower.

The Dow rose as high as 40,051.05 while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also hit record highs in early New York trading before slowly losing steam. Dow has recovered from its October 2022 lows led by resilient US economic growth despite steep rate hikes by the Fed.

US Jobless Claims

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 for the week ended May 11. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 220,000 claims in the latest week.

Bank of Japan

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said the central bank had no immediate plan to sell its huge holdings of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Reuters reported. “We must spend some time in deciding what to do with our ETF holdings, including whether to unload them in the future,” Ueda told parliament.

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Dollar, Treasury Yields

The US dollar and treasury yields rose on Thursday. The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against six peers, rose 0.27% to 104.47. US Treasury yields rebounded from almost six-week lows on Thursday as the benchmark 10-year yields were up at 4.377%, while the two-year yields rose to 4.793%.

Oil Prices

Crude oil prices traded higher, with global benchmark Brent set for its first weekly increase in three weeks.

Brent crude oil prices rose 0.3% to $83.48 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 0.2% to $79.41 a barrel.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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