MORNING BID-TGIF - is it over yet?

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday the battle to control inflation would "include some pain," repeating his expectation of half-percentage-point rate rises at the next two policy meetings. The day ahead is relatively quiet on the data front, perhaps giving investors time to take stock of a wild week.

A look at the day ahead in markets from Dhara Ranasinghe. After a wild ride, markets are in a calmer mood for now. Yet, it is Friday 13 and those prone to superstition would be forgiven for being extra cautious on a day renowned for being unlucky.

Given turbulence across asset classes this week, it's not hard to see why. Look at the euro, it suffered its biggest one-day drop against the dollar on Thursday since March 2020, tumbling over 1%. The S&P 500, which managed to claw back some ground late Thursday, is set for a sixth straight week of declines. That would mark the first time in over a decade the U.S. stock index would have done so, Deutsche Bank says.

And then there's the carnage in the cryptocurrency universe, with the market nursing large losses even if bitcoin has edged back above $30,000. To be fair there's a lot of head-scratching over why exactly some cryptocurrency tokens supposed to be pegged to the dollar faltered earlier this week.

One underlying reason for the pain there, as well as across risk assets, comes back to worries about high inflation and rising interest rates and whether this will bring a hard landing for the world economy. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday the battle to control inflation would "include some pain," repeating his expectation of half-percentage-point rate rises at the next two policy meetings.

The day ahead is relatively quiet on the data front, perhaps giving investors time to take stock of a wild week. But there's also the potential for more volatility. In Europe, pressure to secure alternative gas supplies is increasing after Moscow imposed sanctions on European subsidiaries of state-owned Gazprom.

Gas prices surged on Thursday, with the key European benchmark gaining 12% as buyers were unsettled by the mounting threats to Europe's supply given its high dependence on Russia. That's just one more headwind to the world economy rattled markets could do without.

Key developments that should provide more direction to markets on Friday: - Kuroda rules out the near-term chance of tweaking BOJ's dovish guidance - Bitcoin eyes record losing streak as 'stablecoin' collapse crushes crypto - ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos, ECB board member Isabel Schnabel speak - Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari - Central Banks meet in Mexico, Peru Serbia - University of Michigan sentiment index/ inflation expectations - European earnings: Deutsche Telekom

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)