Jan 31 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian

markets.

A tumultuous week rounds off with investors in Asia taking their

cue from more U.S. 'Big Tech' earnings, digesting Fed Chair

Jerome Powell's guidance from earlier in the week, but bracing

for U.S. tariff-related volatility.

The global macro backdrop is broadly supportive, after the

European Central Bank's rate cut and indication of more to come,

the Bank of Canada's cut earlier this week, and expectations the

Bank of England will ease next week.

But just before the Wall Street close on Thursday President

Donald Trump said the U.S. could slap 25% tariffs on Mexico and

Canada. Trump had said Saturday would be tariff decision day -

could China be targeted too?

On the corporate front, Apple ( AAPL ) shares were under pressure in

volatile after-hours trading on Thursday after the company

announced its latest results. The direction they eventually take

could give Asian markets a cue on Friday.

It's been a mixed bag for the 'Magnificent 7' this week.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) shares got hammered on Monday by the DeepSeek news,

shares in Microsoft ( MSFT ) fell sharply on Thursday after the firm's

results, while shares in Tesla and Meta rose in the wake of

their earnings releases.

Another plank of the U.S. tech story took an Asian twist on

Thursday after the Wall Street Journal reported that Japan's

Softbank is in talks to invest $40 billion in OpenAI, more than

had previously been mooted.

Markets in China are closed on Friday for the Chinese New

Year holidays, and markets in South Korea and Taiwan are closed

too. Liquidity across Asia will be lighter than normal.

Japanese markets will be more active though. After the Bank

of Japan last week raised rates to a 17-year high of 0.5% and

upped its inflation forecast, domestic assets will be sensitive

to the latest retail sales, industrial production, unemployment

and Tokyo inflation data on Friday.

In general, the mood music across markets is pretty upbeat,

especially bearing in mind how discordant it was after the

Deepseek-fueled turmoil on Monday.

The S&P 500 is only down 0.5% on the week and the Nasdaq is

off 1.3% - hardly disastrous moves given the nervousness on

Monday that a much more severe correction was on the cards.

Indeed, the equal-weighted Nasdaq is in the green.

The global picture is even brighter. The MSCI World index

goes into Friday flat on the week and hovering around its

all-time high, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan is also steady, while euro

and UK stocks are roaring to record highs.

Monday's turmoil and rebound is reminiscent of the yen

volatility shock from last August - fears of a yen carry trade

unwind slammed stock markets on Aug. 5, yet they recovered

within days. Many haven't looked back since.

Here are key developments that could provide more direction

to markets on Friday:

- Japan retail sales, industrial production, Tokyo CPI

- Australia producer price inflation (Q4)

- Thailand trade (December)

(By Jamie McGeever

Editing by Deepa Babington)