Asian shares struggled for direction this morning as concerns about inflation and the outlook for economic growth weighed on sentiment.

Gold kicked off the week on a steady note despite last Friday’s blowout jobs report cooling recession fears and reinforcing expectations for more aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

Financial markets were injected with fresh volatility this week as geopolitical tensions between the United States and China rocked sentiment.

Earlier in the week, we questioned whether another jumbo Fed rate hike would be enough to satisfy dollar bulls.