Shares in India are expected to rise for Thursday's opening, rebounding from significant losses experienced in the prior trading session. However, uncertainty remains due to unfavourable international signals and the anticipated close of February series derivative contracts.
The Sensex and Nifty indexes, both benchmarks for India's stock market, experienced a more than 1% fall on Wednesday. Additionally, the rupee's value depreciated by three paise, closing at 82.92 against the US dollar.
Asian markets echoed Wall Street's downward trend this morning as US Treasury bonds and the dollar gained strength. Investors are keenly awaiting the Federal Reserve's critical inflation metric, due later today, for indicative signals about the Fed's interest rate direction.
The US dollar held steady while gold prices saw a small rise. Crude oil prices remained virtually unchanged after an end-of-day dip due to data revealing a large, unexpected increase in US crude inventories.
US stocks concluded Wednesday's trading with losses, following the release of revised figures that showed slightly lower than previously estimated growth for the US economy in Q4 2023. The new data raised hopes that the Fed might be able to bring forward an interest rate cut.
The Dow ended the day with a negligible loss, its third consecutive day of falling values. In the meantime, the S&P 500 declined by 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite, heavy with tech stocks, lost 0.6%.
European stocks performed unevenly on Wednesday as investors remained cautious before the release of pivotal economic data from the US, Eurozone, and China in the coming week.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index dropped by 0.4% as the Eurozone's economic sentiment indicator fell to a three-month low. However, Germany's DAX index rose by 0.3% and France's CAC 40 marginally increased, even as the UK's FTSE 100 suffered a 0.8% loss.
