Opening Bell - Daily Morning Commentary

S&P 500 hits fresh highs

Wall Street's indexes rose on Wednesday, with the benchmark S&P 500 hitting an intraday record high. Investors cheered streaming video provider Netflix's quarterly report and President Donald Trump's private-sector artificial intelligence infrastructure investment plan.

US President Donald Trump announced a groundbreaking joint venture, Stargate, with OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank. The venture will commit up to $500 billion over four years to advance AI infrastructure in the US. Key partners like Microsoft, Nvidia, and Arm are expected to join the initiative, with initial operations beginning in Texas. Shares of Oracle were higher by roughly 7% in response, and technology was the top-performing sector of the S&P 500 by a wide margin.

The German DAX index resumed its record-breaking rally and surged to fresh all-time highs on the possible loosening of the debt brake, the hope of ECB rate cuts, and China stimulus.

The Bank of Japan is expected to raise its policy rate by 25 bps to 0.50% today.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened Russia "and other participating countries" with taxes, tariffs, and sanctions if a deal to end the war in Ukraine is not struck soon.

Asian markets opened on a positive note following gains in Western markets.

Nifty saw a pullback of 136 points in a volatile session that eventually ended in the green, led by gains in heavyweight sectors such as Information Technology (IT) and banking. Nifty managed to protect lows of 22976, which will serve as the stop loss for long positions. On the higher side, 23300-23400 could offer resistance. Sharp selling continued in broader markets, and breadth deteriorated further. Foreign investors also sold equities worth 4,000 Cr. in yesterday’s markets.

Indian markets are likely to open subdued today despite positive global cues as foreign investors continue to offload Indian stocks incessantly.