Sensex, Nifty Set To Drift Lower As Oil And Bond Yields Spike

(RTTNews) - Indian shares may drift lower on Wednesday as investors react to a big surge in oil prices overnight and a jump in U.S. Treasury yields to multi-week highs.

Anxiety ahead of the general election results, due next week may also keep investors on the sidelines.

The Lok Sabha exit poll results will be announced post the completion of all seven phases on June 01. The actual results will be announced on June 4th.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty ended a choppy session slightly lower on Tuesday while the rupee settled 5 paise lower at 83.18 against the dollar.

Asian markets traded mostly lower this morning while the dollar gained, and benchmark U.S. Treasury yields hit a four-week high.

Gold traded lower as traders pared bets of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said in an interview that he needs to see "many more months of positive inflation data" before he would consider cutting interest rates.

Oil was little changed in Asian trading after rallying sharply in the previous session as another attack on a ship in the Red Sea added to heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

U.S. stocks ended mixed overnight as Nvidia shares surged in an otherwise lackluster trading.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.6 percent to a new record closing high and the S&P 500 finished marginally higher.

The Dow gave up 0.6 percent after hawkish comments from Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari and a jump in the 10-year Treasury yield above 4.5 percent following relatively weak 2-year and 5-year auctions.

In economic news, data showed U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly improved in May after deteriorating for three straight months.

European stocks closed lower on Tuesday as investors reassessed the likely stance of the Fed, ECB and BOE with regard to interest rates.

The pan European STOXX 600 fell 0.6 percent. The German DAX dipped half a percent, France's CAC 40 shed 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 declined 0.8 percent.