Investors will be waiting for a critical last-minute US August inflation report next week ahead of the Fed meeting that will offer some final key information that could give fresh clues on whether the Fed will need to raise by 75 or 50 basis points at the next policy meeting due Sept. 20-21.

- Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell reiterated Thursday that the central bank was "strongly committed" to controlling inflation, a stance that largely cemented the market’s belief that the U.S. central bank will hike by 75 basis points at its next meeting in just under two weeks.

- Money market traders see nearly 90% odds that the Fed will hikes rates by 75 basis points at this month’s meeting.

- Worries over aggressive monetary tightening across the globe stalled markets after the European Central Bank hiked interest rates by an unprecedented 75 basis points and signaled further hikes.

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Equities:

- Wall Street's main indexes posted gains on Thursday mainly lifted by financial institutions and healthcare companies, as investors digested hawkish remarks from policymakers that cemented bets of a large interest rate hike later this month. Indexes bounced back and forth in a choppy trading as concerns over Federal Reserve's next steps to tame a surging inflation remain.

- The Nasdaq Composite added 85.4 points or 0.7%, to 12,340.6. The S&P 500 gained 26.31 points, or 0.66%, to 4,006.19 and the  Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 220 points, or 0.70%, to 31,796.

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Currency Market:

- The U.S. dollar dropped sharply after hawkish comments from the European Central Bank prompted traders to reassess global rate hike expectations. The Dollar Index traded 1.1% lower to 108.585, heading for a 0.6% weekly drop after climbing to a 20-year high of 110.79 earlier in the week.

- EUR/USD rose 1% to 1.0091, climbing firmly back towards parity after hitting a 20-year low of 0.9863 earlier in the week.

- GBP/USD rose 1% to 1.1616, heading for the best daily jumps in a month, and recovering from the modest dip made after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. USD/JPY fell 1.2% to 142.31, Risk-sensitive AUD/USD rose 1.4 to 0.6845, while USD/CNY fell 0.5% to 6.9264.

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Commodities: Gold

- Gold prices rose and recovered from strong losses despite boosted market expectations that the US Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates at a strong pace during the September meeting by as much as 0.75%, coinciding with the decline in the US bond yield.

- The yellow metal in spot transactions recorded $1,729.46 an ounce.

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Commodities: Oil

- Oil prices rose as investors considered Russia's threat to halt oil and gas exports to some buyers, but crude was set for a second weekly decline as central banks' aggressive rate hikes and China's COVID-19 curbs weighed on demand.

- Brent crude futures rose 0.3% to $89.37 a barrel. WTI crude futures climbed 0.1%, to $83.64.

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