Economy and markets: All you need to know to start your day on Feb. 21

Asian shares fell on Wednesday, taking cues from their American counterparts while dollar steadied after previous session's gains.

Investors are focusing on minutes this week from the most recent meetings of both the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.15 percent. Japan's Nikkei shed 0.2 percent. Chinese mainland markets open to trading on Thursday.

Overnight, the Dow and S&P 500 fell to snap a six-session winning streak after Walmart plunged the most since 1988.

Back home, SGX Nifty, an early indicator of the Nifty 50's trend in India, signals a positive start for the domestic markets after the benchmark Sensex declined 71 points or 0.21 percent to close at 33,703 on Tuesday.

The partially convertible rupee ended at 64.79 per dollar on Tuesday — a level last seen on November 22, from its previous close of 64.22 per dollar.

So far this year, the rupee has fallen 1 percent against the U.S. dollar, while overseas investors have bought $1.02 billion from local equity and $1.9 billion in debt markets.

F&O Expiry: Trading is likely to be volatile this week as traders will roll over positions in the futures and options segment from the February 2018 series to March 2018 series.

Crude check: Brent crude declined 0.58 percent at $64.87 per barrel while the West Texas Intermediate crude lost 0.71 percent to $61.35 a barrel.

Fed minutes: On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its January meeting at which the central bank opted to leave interest rates unchanged but upgraded its inflation outlook.

Fed speeches: A slew of Fed policy makers are due to speak this week including New York Fed President William Dudley and Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic.