The US-Iran war continues to intensify, with concerns growing over the possibility of Israel being drawn further into the conflict. Iran-backed Houthis have stepped up attacks in Yemen, while strikes have also extended to Saudi Arabia, disrupting the kingdom’s oil exports.
Despite the geopolitical risks, financial markets are beginning to see some relief on the interest-rate front.
US private-sector employment growth in August came in well below expectations, marking the weakest increase since January. The softer labour market data has reduced expectations of a US Federal Reserve rate hike at its September 16 meeting, with the probability falling to 66 percent.
Lower crude oil prices also helped. US Treasury bond prices rose, pushing yields down from recent highs. The shift supported Wall Street, while Asian markets also moved higher today. Gold recovered, climbing back above $4,400 an ounce.
Gift Nifty, traded at GIFT City, closed at 24,095.50 on Wednesday night and rose to 24,111 this morning. The trend points to a positive opening for Indian equities.
The turmoil in the bond market began to ease, while equities moved higher. The West Asian conflict continued without any major escalation overnight, and crude oil prices slipped from around $97 to $95 a barrel.
The yield on the US 30-year Treasury, which had climbed as high as 5.295 percent, eased to 5.256 percent. The 10-year Treasury yield moved lower to around 4.776 percent.
Comments from the New York Federal Reserve president that higher Treasury yields reflected expectations of stronger economic growth also helped calm investors.
European and Asian bond markets had remained under pressure on Wednesday, but the turnaround in US markets came after those markets had closed.
Reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping could travel to Washington on September 24 to meet US President Donald Trump also supported sentiment.
Dow Jones gained 295.07 points, or 0.56 percent, to close at 53,061.95.
S&P 500 rose 35.13 points, or 0.46 percent, to 7,666.60.
Nasdaq Composite advanced 118.05 points, or 0.45 percent, to 26,217.83.
US stock futures are trading marginally higher today.
Dow Jones futures: +52 points, or 0.10 percent
S&P 500 futures: +4 points, or 0.05 percent
Nasdaq futures: -12 points, or 0.04 percent
Indian ADRs traded in New York ended mixed.
HDFC Bank rose 1.13 percent during regular trading and gained another 0.17 percent in after-hours trading to close at $23.25.
ICICI Bank gained 1.29 percent during regular trading but slipped 0.07 percent after hours to $30.56.
Infosys fell 0.25 percent during regular trading and was unchanged in after-hours trading at $11.97.
Wipro declined 1.64 percent during regular trading before surging 2.78 percent in after-hours trading to $1.85.
European equities fell again on Wednesday, with interest-rate concerns weighing on sentiment.
Euro zone retail inflation at 3.3 percent has strengthened expectations that the European Central Bank could raise interest rates by 0.25 percentage point next week.
However, futures indicate that European bond markets could see some relief today.
Asian markets are mostly higher today.
Japan’s Nikkei moved into negative territory at one stage before recovering. Australia’s market posted a marginal gain.
South Korea’s KOSPI gained 1.6 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.80 percent.
Taiwan’s benchmark initially gained before slipping into negative territory. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.65 percent.
Higher crude oil prices and interest-rate concerns dragged Indian equities lower again on Wednesday. However, losses narrowed considerably during the closing auction session.
Foreign investors turned strong buyers, making net purchases of ₹6,688.37 crore in the cash market. Domestic funds also recorded net purchases of ₹2,812.98 crore.
Market performance on Wednesday:
Sensex fell 373.93 points, or 0.49 percent, to 76,570.35.
Nifty 50 declined 141.35 points, or 0.59 percent, to 23,914.50.
Bank Nifty fell 237.60 points, or 0.41 percent, to 57,172.00.
Nifty Midcap 100 dropped 332.90 points, or 0.53 percent, to 63,001.60.
Nifty Smallcap 100 declined 74 points, or 0.37 percent, to 19,812.25.
Market breadth remained weak. On the BSE, 1,799 stocks gained while 2,560 declined. On the NSE, 1,430 stocks advanced and 2,057 fell.
ICICI Bank bought an additional 2 percent stake in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, taking its holding to 52.8 percent.
Power Grid Corporation secured a ₹3,244.33-crore power transmission project in Rajasthan.
SoftBank is set to sell 7 crore Meesho shares, representing 1.5 percent of the company, through a bulk deal today. The average selling price is ₹205 a share, taking the transaction value to about ₹1,435 crore.
Hexaware Technologies CEO Srikrishna Ram Karthikeyan will step down on October 26. Vivek Jetley will take over as CEO.
Gold, which had been under pressure amid rate concerns, rebounded sharply on Wednesday.
Gold gained $59.30, or 1.37 percent, to close at $4,389 an ounce. It climbed as high as $4,410 this morning before easing slightly.
In Keralam, 22-carat gold fell ₹2,240 per sovereign on Wednesday to ₹1,11,480. Prices could recover today.
Silver closed at $65.45 an ounce on Wednesday and edged higher this morning.
Other precious metals:
Platinum: $1,756
Palladium: $1,329
Rhodium: $8,875
Goldman Sachs has forecast gold at $4,900 an ounce by the end of this year. A report by Goldman Sachs Research did not rule out the possibility of speculative buying pushing gold above $5,000.
RBC Capital Markets expects gold to reach $4,929 an ounce by the end of 2026 and $5,296 by the end of 2027. He attributes the longer-term potential partly to countries seeking to reduce their dependence on the US dollar.
Rubber prices declined in Keralam as well.
In Bangkok, RSS 1 fell to $279.90 per quintal and RSS 3 to $276.50. In Keralam, prices slipped to ₹27,400 per quintal.
The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries expects global natural rubber production at 15.28 million tonnes this year, against consumption of 15.36 million tonnes.
Industrial metals, except nickel, declined on Wednesday.
Copper fell 0.30 percent to $14,352.65 a tonne. Aluminium declined 0.22 percent to $3,253.10. Lead, tin and zinc also fell, while nickel gained.
Cocoa prices declined another 4.54 percent to close at $6,273 a tonne.
Production in the 2026-27 season is expected to decline by 20 percent in Ivory Coast and 13 percent in Ghana.
Arabica coffee fell 3.91 percent to $2.974 a pound.
Palm oil declined 0.30 percent to 4,958 Malaysian ringgit a tonne.
The US Dollar Index fell on Wednesday to close at 99.60. It slipped further to 99.54 this morning.
The euro strengthened to $1.1592, while the pound eased to $1.3488.
The Japanese yen strengthened to 158.42 per dollar, while the Chinese yuan remained around 6.72 per dollar.
The yield on US 10-year Treasuries eased to 4.784 percent.
The rupee weakened marginally on Wednesday, with the dollar gaining two paise to close at ₹94.97.
In the offshore forward market, the dollar was trading at ₹94.49 this morning.
A stronger-than-expected foreign-exchange accumulation could provide further support to the rupee today.
The Chinese yuan rose to ₹14.14, while the euro stood at ₹110.07.
Crude oil, which had approached $97 a barrel yesterday, subsequently slipped below $95 before recovering slightly.
Brent crude gained $0.98 on Wednesday to close at $95.63 a barrel, but fell to $95.20 this morning.
WTI crude was trading at $90.74 a barrel.
Cryptocurrencies remained under pressure.
Bitcoin was trading below $77,350, while Ether remained below $2,400. Solana was above $100.
Sensex 76,570.35 -0.49%
Nifty 50 23,914.50 -0.59%
Bank Nifty 57,172.00 -0.41%
Nifty Midcap 100 63,001.60 -0.53%
Nifty Smallcap 100 19,812.25 -0.37%
Dow Jones 53,061.95 +0.56%
S&P 500 7,666.60 +0.46%
Nasdaq 26,217.83 +0.45%
Dollar ₹94.97 +₹0.02
Gold (ounce) $4,389.00 +$59.30
Gold (sovereign) ₹1,11,480 -₹2,240
Brent crude $95.63 +$0.98
