US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said two hawkish things – first on the balancesheet reduction he said, “sooner and faster that much is clear” and “balancesheet is far above where it needs to be”. Second point on rate lift-off he offered no explicit pushback against expectations of March hike. The newsflow is one way and the market goes the other way is something one should pay attention to always.

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Will have to hike interest rates if inflation doesn't slow down: US Fed chief

Equities continued to unwind Monday’s sell-off, S&P was up 1 percent, the NASDAQ was up 1.5 percent and the dollar was weak once again. The dollar in Asian market was weak against most Asian currencies and oil is up 3.5 percent back at USD 83-84 per barrel.

It is not sure if this is a pre-budget rally or is this the ‘new Omicron threat is not as bad as was thought earlier’ rally. There is no buzz about the Budget per se.

Watch the accompanying video of CNBC-TV18’s Prashant Nair for more details.

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