Investing.com — Oil longs who rushed to load up on Friday after the growth in U.S. jobs numbers turned out to be tamer than thought must have overlooked something else that’s pending: Inflation data on Tuesday.

The Consumer Price Index for February is the last piece of the puzzle, if you will, that decides whether the Federal Reserve goes with 25 basis points or 50 for the rate hike due on March 22.

If all these are correct, the inflation data on March 14 will deliver no nasty surprises. That will be in line with the benign trend set by Friday’s non-farm payrolls, which came in just about 105,000 above expectations for February versus January’s beat of 332,000.