What in your view are going to be the major cues for the stock market in the next starting on 20th December?

Here are the major cues and signals to track for the coming week.

· Nifty fell by 3% during the week but the problem was not just the Nifty but the breadth of the markets. Mid-cap and small-cap also fell sharply as the markets reacted negatively to Fed hawkishness. This created the latest macro risk which will continue next week.

· There are hardly any data flows for the month, but one critical announcement to watch will be the MPC minutes on 22nd Dec. Especially, in the light of Fed hawkishness, the minutes of MPC will give a much clearer picture of what the RBI is thinking.

· As the year comes to an end, IPOs are tapering. Next week the Supriya Lifesciences IPO will close on 20-Dec and the CMS Info Systems IPO will open on 21-Dec. But there will be 5 listings of Shriram Properties, MapmyIndia, Metro Brands, Medplus and Data Patterns.

· As rising Omicron cases spreading to 89 countries presents a macro risk, the global valuations are again veering to the good old IT story. With robust guidance from Accenture, Indian IT sector looks ripe for a re-rating and a rally in the coming week too.

· FII selling is looking bac as FII outflows for December so far stood at $1.79 billion net. IT would have looked a lot worse but for IPO inflows of $1.56 billion. In between, Wipro replacing Bajaj Auto will drive flows of $154 million into Wipro in next few days.

· Brent fell to $73/bbl from a high of $85/bbl as Omicron raised growth worries and the release of oil from the SPR put further pressure on oil. However, the pressure on the INR continued at beyond 76/$ as global hawkishness is proving to be a major worry.

· Call and put writing ranges have consistently shifted lower to 17,300 and 16,500 strikes showing lot of pessimism in markets. However, the ironic situation is that the VIX continues to remain tepid at around the 16 levels, and the large scale panic is not visible.

· US data focus shifts to Q3 GDP, existing home sales, personal income and spending, durable goods orders, jobless claims this week. In other triggers, look for EU Consumer Confidence Flash; Japan BOJ Policy, inflation, housing starts and construction orders.