Good Morning, dear reader! Wall Street had a bad night and Europe a solid evening. Cues from Asian markets do not look bright, but the SGX Nifty50 is pointing towards a pleasant opening on as investors return to the Street after dissecting the Budget fineprint. News bytes about the Budget, crude prices and a possible US Fed rate hike are among the small and big cues that may have changed the market when you were sleeping. Wall Street loses out as Fed weighs Investors and traders on Wall Street took a hit in overnight trade as strong economic data signaled the possibility of a March rate hike by US Fed. The S&P500 index ended with losses of 0.82 per cent, moving below its 50-day moving average, which is a sign of bad sentiment. The Street ignored the solid rally in the European markets, which rose on the back of a 3 per cent surge in the crude prices. Credibility issues lurking for the US Fed Key data points released over the past month on the US economy pointed to a much brighter picture than many wanted to believe. Fed’s preferred inflations measure spiked up to 1.7 per cent in 2015, close to its target of 2 per cent. Given the numbers, some economists believe, if Fed does not hike rate in March, it may mean the US central bank is not that data dependent after all. With Budget done, GST next agenda The Finance Minister said on Monday evening that he would make sure that GST Bill is passed sooner than later and reiterated that the BJP will reach to the Congress to address their issues over the Bill. The FM said all political parties seem to be in favour of the Bill. After a decent enough Budget, if the government can get the GST issue sorted out, that will be a major trigger for the market in the near term. Oil at $40 or above by the end of the year A Reuters poll shows that the black gold is going to hover above the $40 mark for the remaining part of the year. Analysts believe lower demand and the output freeze are unlikely to help the world’s most suffered commodity. The possibility of an agreement to curtail price volatility between Opec and non-Opec members and the decline in US shale gas production, though, have seen traders mount bullish bets on oil. Japan is taking G20 very seriously The Shinjo Abe government in Asia’s second largest economy is preparing the groundwork for further fiscal stimulus, indicating that it takes its G20 meetings seriously. In the latest meeting between world’s top 20 economies, it was decided that governments need to focus more on fiscal than monetary stimulus. With tax revenue bulging, the government in the island nation has a leeway to support consumption spending to boost inflation.