The Fed minutes is likely the most important data point this week alongside the moves in the U.S. yields, he said. The minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting will be released during U.S. trading hours on Thursday. Since the last meeting when the Fed opted for a smaller 25 basis points rate hike, expectations of the terminal rate have been priced higher. A series of data points, including the U.S. monthly jobs report, consumer and wholesale inflation and retail sales, have prompted investors to price in a peak rate of 5.30% in the cycle, about 35 to 40 bps higher than two weeks ago. "The Feb Fed minutes are largely stale but could still hold some nuggets for the market to work with," Chris Weston, head research at Melbourne-based Pepperstone Group, said. U.S. near maturity yields have jumped with the 2-year last week reaching its highest level since November. U.S. markets are shut Monday.
Asian currencies managed to begin the week on a slightly positive note following last week's selloff.
The rupee did fall last week, but managed to fare better than its Asian on likely intervention by the Reserve Bank of India. The dollar index was hovering 104. Apart from the minutes, a couple of Fed speakers are set to speak this week. Oil prices fell about 2.5% on Friday, extending its weekly decline to near 4%. KEY INDICATORS:
** One-month non-deliverable rupee forward at
82.80; onshore one-month forward premium at 11.50 paise
** USD/INR NSE Feb futures settled on Friday at 82.8575
** USD/INR Feb forward at 3.0 paise
** Dollar index up at 103.99
** Brent crude futures at $83.3 per barrel
** Ten-year U.S. note yield at 3.82% on Fri
** SGX Nifty nearest-month futures up 0.2% at 17,968
** As per NSDL data, foreign investors bought a net
$245.6mln worth of Indian shares on Feb. 16
** NSDL data shows foreign investors bought a net $9.1mln
worth of Indian bonds on Feb. 16
(Reporting by Nimesh Vora)
