Opening Bell - Daily Morning Commentary

First signs of semblance

American stock market rally saw further gains Thursday. The S&P 500 finished the day up 0.5%, surpassing its previous record finish of 6090.

President Donald Trump, speaking remotely at the World Economic Forum in Davos, reiterated plans for tax cuts and tariff hikes.

U.S. crude oil prices fell 1.1% to $74.62 per barrel, following Trump's push for more OPEC output. Crude futures have tumbled 6.8% in the last five sessions

On the economic front, initial jobless claims ticked higher from the prior week, partly impacted by the wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Overall claims remain low, buttressing the fact that the U.S. economic and earnings growth momentum remains strong.

Stocks in the Asia-Pacific region advanced on Friday, tracking an overnight rally on Wall Street that pushed stocks to record highs. All eyes will be on the Bank of Japan, which is widely expected to raise interest rates today.

Indian markets extended their gains to day two on Thursday, led by UltraTech Cement Ltd. and information-technology stocks on positive earnings and optimism over Donald Trump's AI policies. After the last few days of underperformance, the mid and small-cap indices made a strong comeback in yesterday's session. Value buying was seen in beaten-down midcap stocks, where recent quarterly results are per market expectations, especially in the Information technology and consumer durable sectors.

The Nifty's daily oscillators have shown a slight positive divergence, indicating a good chance that the current pullback will extend today. Derivative market cues suggest minor short covering by Foreigners. A level of 22976 appears to have established itself as a strong support for Nifty in the short term, while the range of 23400-23500 could pose as resistance.

Indian markets to open mildly higher on the back of positive Asian and buoyant American markets.