US equities ended mixed on February 21 after hawkish FOMC minutes reading but futures rose overnight on Nvidia's blockbuster earnings. Asian markets, too, joined the sentiment as Japan's Nikkei 225 hit a new high.
Overnight, US major averages Dow Jones and the S&P 500 gained 0.1 percent each, while tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite index lost over 0.3 percent after minutes of the Federal Reserve's February meeting showed that officials were caution on lowering interest rates waiting for concrete data on receding inflation.
The hawkish stance also prompted 10-year and 2-year treasury yields to spike to 4.3 percent and 4.6 percent.
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However, futures tied-to Wall Street Dow Futures, S&P 500 Futures, and NASDAQ Futures surged up to a percent after chip maker Nvidia popped 9 percent in after-hours trade on strong quarterly financials. The semiconductor company's revenue rose a staggering 265 percent from a year ago, driven by its booming AI business.
Back home, trends in the GIFT Nifty indicated a positive start as it stood at 22,124, up 76 points at 7.40 am. In the previous session, the Sensex and the Nifty declined 0.6 percent each to 72,623 and 22,055 amid a broad-based selloff.
Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities, said the Nifty formed a bearish engulfing pattern on the daily chart, indicating a potential pause in the ongoing rally.
"The immediate support is positioned at 22,000. A decisive drop below this level could lead the index towards 21,700. On the upside, resistance is identified at 22,160," he said .
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Markets in Asia-Pacific inched higher in the this morning, with Japan's Nikkei 225 index at record highs of 38,924.8, surpassing the previous all-time high of 38,915.8 reached in 1989.
Australia's S&P 200 index also traded marginally higher, while South Korea's Kospi was up 0.3 percent after Bank of Korea held interest rates steady 3.5 percent.
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