Sensex, Nifty Likely To Open On Cautious Note

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are seen opening on a cautious note Thursday as investors await cues from the upcoming Q3 earnings season and prepare for the highly anticipated U.S. jobs report due on Friday that could shed more light on the Federal Reserve's policy outlook.

Tata Consultancy Services will kickstart the quarterly earnings season today, with analysts expecting a marginal rise in quarterly revenue on a sequential basis. On an annual basis, revenue is expected to grow 6.3 percent.

The Nifty 50 options contracts weekly expiry may induce some volatility as the session progresses.

U.S. stock markets will remain shut today in observance of a National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended Wednesday's choppy session on a flat note, erasing early losses after a lower economic growth projection by the government. The rupee slumped 13 paise to close at a new record low of 85.87 per dollar amid higher crude oil prices and sustained foreign fund outflows.

Foreign portfolio investors extended their selling spree and offloaded shares worth Rs 3,362.18 crore on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors bought shares to the extent of Rs 2,716.28 crore, according to NSE provisional data.

Asian markets were broadly lower this morning as data showed China's consumer inflation weakened further toward zero in December and producer price deflation persisted, in a setback for the government's efforts to bolster a faltering economy.

Oil held losses after falling more than 1 percent on Wednesday. Gold was marginally lower, and the dollar and Treasuries were steady as focus shifted to the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Wednesday he believes inflation will continue to cool toward the central bank's 2 percent target over the medium term and that further rate reductions will be appropriate.

U.S. stocks ended narrowly mixed overnight as investors assessed a slew of economic data and reports suggesting that President-elect Donald Trump was mulling a national economic emergency declaration to provide legal justification for a series of universal tariffs on allies and adversaries.

In economic releases, the ADP private sector employment report showed fewer jobs were added in December than economists had anticipated. Separate data revealed that jobless claims for the previous week unexpectedly fell to their lowest level in almost eleven months.

The minutes from the Fed's December meeting revealed that officials expect slower rate cuts in 2025 and remain worried about the inflation impacts from Trump's policies.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished marginally lower while the Dow rose 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 added 0.2 percent.

European stocks fell broadly on Wednesday after the release of disappointing Eurozone economic sentiment, German retail sales and factory orders data.

The pan European STOXX 600 eased 0.2 percent. The German DAX edged down marginally and France's CACC 40 shed half a percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended flat with a positive bias.