a look at the day ahead in european and global markets from brigid riley is the most aggressive us hiking cycle in a generation finished after wednesdays 25 basis point hike  markets seem to think so traders in asia cheered a glimpse of the fabled soft landing with jerome powell saying the fed no longer expects a us recession  stocks rose and the dollar fell across the board the spotlight now falls on christine lagarde and the european central bank  which is all but certain to follow with an additional quarter of a percentage point hike later today the focus will be on president lagarde’s tone and language for a guide on whats to come  with the outlook likely to move the euro and set the dollars direction markets had expected hawkishness but were set aflutter last week when council member klass knot cast doubt on the need for hikes beyond july the bank of japan is then up on friday with perhaps the most unpredictable central bank decision of the week the yen hit the strong side of 140 to the dollar as nobody wants to be caught short if theres a surprise tweak to yield controls european futures rose 03 and us futures also added 03 on the earnings front renault renapa  totalenergies ttefpa and l’oreal oreppa report in france and intel intco  ford fn  mastercard man  and mcdonalds mcdn in the united states stimulus hopes drove chinese stocks higher on thursday with the hang seng index hsi up 14 and its tech subindex hstech gaining 3 and property stocks hsmpi over 4 key developments that could influence markets on thursday  ecb rate decision  us preliminary q2 gdp numbers  us initial jobless claims  us june durable goods data