Wall Street ran hot on Nvidia's blowout quarter, but the single biggest driver for India's open is not the AI trade — it is Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's first Jackson Hole speech tonight, which is keeping global money on the sidelines and GIFT Nifty pinned flat.

US prior close (Thu, Aug 27)

• Nasdaq Composite 26,541.35, +1.57% — Nvidia's results drove it: sales up 106% and EPS up 128% y/y, data-centre revenue up 117%, a 13th straight beat of its own guidance (Motley Fool). Nvidia guided FY28 revenue growth near 70% against consensus of about 44% (ADVFN).
• S&P 500 7,730.99, +0.72% — software joined in: Salesforce +22.58% on its Anthropic "Claudeforce" tie-up, CrowdStrike +20.50%, Veeva +15.20%.
• Dow 53,569.44, +0.20% — lagged, as consumer discretionary and real estate weakened. Hormel fell 10.25% on an earnings miss.

Asia now & Europe

• Nikkei 225 +0.82%; Kospi −1.14% — Asia is mixed, not euphoric; Marvell's 7% drop capped chip enthusiasm (Business Standard). Hang Seng and Shanghai levels not yet available at press time.
• Europe was subdued through Thursday's session — Stoxx 600 −0.1%, DAX flat, CAC 40 −0.2%, FTSE 100 −0.4% — even as ASML rose 2.5% and Infineon, STMicro and BE Semiconductor added 2–4% (ADVFN). German consumer sentiment improved to −26.6 for September.

India lead

GIFT Nifty 24,258.50, down 24 points, signalling a tepid start (Business Standard). Nifty 50 closed Thursday at 24,090.85 (−116.90, −0.48%) and Sensex at 76,933.59 (−539.35, −0.70%), a second straight fall on selling in metals, PSU banks and cement.

Commodities, currency, rates

• Brent (Sept) $88.20, −0.35% — softening after diplomatic progress between Qatar, Iran and the US over Strait of Hormuz shipping. Good for India's import bill, but crude near $88 is still a margin drag.
• Gold futures around $4,648.90 on Thursday, down a further 0.75% this morning; silver −1.21%.
• USD/INR near 95.50, with the dollar index near 99.15 — the rupee lost the benefit of softer oil to renewed dollar demand (Tradingpedia).
• US 10-year yield 4.67%, holding steady (Trading Economics). This is the number that caps any India rally.

Sentiment: selectively risk-on

AI earnings are doing the lifting; rates are doing the capping. Wednesday's July PCE came in at 3.7% y/y headline versus 3.6% expected, with core at 3.3% — sticky enough that a rate hike is still being debated inside the Fed. That is why a 1.57% Nasdaq day translates into a flat GIFT Nifty.

Data due today (Fri, Aug 28)

• India — nothing major today. The big one is Q1 FY27 GDP on Monday, Aug 31: consensus near 7.2% versus 7.8% in Q4 FY26, with estimates ranging from 6.9% (India Ratings) to 8.0% (SBI). A sub-7 print would pressure cyclicals and revive rate-cut chatter.
• US — Chicago Business Barometer (9:45am ET), revised University of Michigan sentiment (10am ET), preliminary non-farm payrolls annual benchmark revision (a real event risk, per Newsquawk), and Warsh at Jackson Hole, 10am ET / 7:30pm IST.
• Global — Tokyo CPI and Japan unemployment, German unemployment, French and Spanish flash CPI, Canadian GDP, ECB's Schnabel.

A hawkish Warsh lifts the 10-year and the dollar, pressures the rupee and hits Indian IT and high-multiple names on Monday; a balanced tone lets the AI trade carry through to Nifty IT.

Stocks in focus

• Tempsens Instruments lists today, with grey-market chatter pointing to roughly a 110% premium over the ₹300 issue price — GMP is unofficial and not a forecast.
• Priority Jewels and ESDS Software Solutions open for subscription.
• Nifty IT and semiconductor-linked names should track the Nvidia read-through; metals stay the soft spot after Thursday's drop.
• The Information reported Nvidia has agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion — treat as a media report pending confirmation.

What it means for the India open today

Expect a flat-to-marginally-soft start with a clear split under the surface: IT and chip-linked names should find bids on the Nvidia read-through, while metals, PSU banks and rate-sensitives stay heavy with the US 10-year at 4.67% and the rupee near 95.50. With Warsh speaking only at 7:30pm IST and GDP landing Monday, the honest read is that today is a positioning day, not a trending one — most of the real risk sits in the weekend gap.

As of 8:45 AM IST, 28 August 2026. Figures as reported by: Business Standard, Motley Fool, ADVFN, Trading Economics, Tradingpedia, Kiplinger, Newsquawk, Business Standard (GDP preview). These are figures reported by news sources, not live exchange quotes. Automated pre-market brief for discussion and education only — not investment advice. Verify before acting.