Morning Bid: Batten down the hatches – Reuters.com

Morning Bid: Batten down the hatches – Reuters.com

A look at the day ahead in markets from Saikat Chatterjee.

Markets are starting to buckle in a week where the world's top central bank issued its most dire warning yet on the need to kill surging inflation, just as fresh signs of rapidly deteriorating growth outlook emerged.

An index of world stocks is poised for its worst losing streak on record. Safe-haven gold is down nearly 4% this quarter. Safe-haven government debt, with prices on 10-year U.S. Treasuries down more than 10% so far this year, have been given a bit of respite.