10 things you need to know before the opening bell on April 20 – CNBCTV18

1. Wall Street: Stocks closed broadly lower on Wall Street Monday, pulling major indexes below the latest record highs they reached last week. The S&P 500 fell 0.5 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1 percent. Small-company stocks did worse than the rest of the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4 percent.

2. Asian stocks: Shares in APAC were mostly lower on Tuesday as China kept its benchmark lending rate unchanged. Stocks in Japan led losses among the region’s major markets, with the Nikkei 225 falling 1.85 percent. Mainland Chinese stocks declined. The Shanghai composite dipped about 0.27 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.19 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia also declined by about 0.34 percent. Only South Korea’s Kospi bucked the overall trend to gain 0.49 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded fractionally lower.

4. Crude oil: Oil prices rose on Tuesday as a weaker US dollar supported commodities and on expectations that crude inventories fell in the United States, the world’s biggest oil user, though rising coronavirus cases in Asia capped gains. Brent crude futures for June delivery rose by 0.4 percent to $67.33 a barrel at 0157 GMT. US WTI crude futures for May delivery were up 0.3 percent to $63.57 barrel.

5. Rupee: The rupee plunged by 52 paise to close at 74.87 against the US dollar on Monday as fresh lockdown measures by some states to control spiralling cases of COVID-19 unnerved investors and stoked fears of forex outflows. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened lower at 74.80 against the greenback and touched a low of 75.05 in day trade.

6. Gold: Gold rallied by Rs 411 to Rs 47,291 per 10 gram in the national capital on Monday reflecting strong buying in the global precious metal and rupee depreciation. Silver also gained Rs 338 to Rs 68,335 per kilogram from Rs 67,997 per kilogram. In the international market, gold was trading with gains at USD 1,787 per ounce and silver was quoting marginally higher at USD 26.08 per ounce.

7. Bitcoin: Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, reversed its losses after plunging as much as 14 percent on Sunday following speculation the US Treasury may be looking at cracking down on money-laundering activity within digital assets.

8. COVID-19: The Central government on Monday announced liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of COVID-19 vaccination from May 1. As per the strategy, everyone above the age of 18 will be eligible to get a vaccine from May 1.

9. Travel curbs: Britain on Monday added India to its COVID-19 travel “red list”, which effectively bans all travel from the country and makes a 10-day hotel quarantine compulsory for UK residents arriving back to the country.

10. Airline shares: Shares of airlines declined on Monday after domestic air traffic dipped sharply amid rising COVID-19 cases and as states imposed strict curbs to tackle the outbreak of the second wave of the pandemic. The average number of daily flyers fell sharply while the weekly average daily domestic flight passengers stood at 1,93,000 for the week ending April 17, compared with 2,32,000 in the week ending April 10, according to a report by ICICI Securities released on Monday.