April 5 (Reuters) - Markets are looking for confirmation

from the European Central Bank that a June rate cut is really

coming, though oil is on the rise again, clouding the inflation

picture - and giving policy makers in Canada, New Zealand and

Korea food for thought.

China gears up to release a deluge of key data and U.S.

banks kick off the earnings season.

Here's your week ahead primer in world markets from Yoruk

Bahceli in Amsterdam, Lewis Krauskopf in New York, Kevin

Buckland in Tokyo, and Dhara Ranasinghe and Amanda Cooper in

London.

1/ SEEKING THE GREEN LIGHT

The European Central Bank meets on Thursday in what is

likely the final hurdle before it starts cutting interest rates.

Traders see a nearly 100% chance of a 25 basis-point cut in

June, so a green light is crucial to uphold market sentiment. A

flurry of policymakers have explicitly signalled June as the

date of a first move. Even Austria's uber-hawk governor Robert

Holzmann is not opposed.

Data showing inflation falling unexpectedly to 2.4% in March

should give the ECB further confidence.

So the ECB is very likely to signal rate cuts are coming.

The question is how explicit policymakers will be about

June, given they want to review first-quarter wage growth

figures that will be released in May.

2/ A CRUDE CIRCLE

Rising geopolitical turmoil and supply disruption in a

number of production hot-spots are pushing oil prices back

towards $90 a barrel for the first time in months.

Central banks tend to focus on so-called core measures of

inflation that strip out energy and food prices. But for

businesses on the ground, there's no taking the crude price out

of the equation. And the assumption that the U.S. Fed might cut

rates by less than its peers has pushed the dollar up almost

across the board this year.

That in turn has undermined the purchasing power of big

buyers in China, Japan, India and South Korea, raising their

energy import bills.

All this complicates life for those countries' monetary

authorities, which have either intervened, or threatened to

intervene, to prop up their currencies to prevent a

vicious-circle type of pickup in inflation.

3/ BANK LINE UP

Market fixation on U.S. monetary policy will be somewhat

diverted in the coming week, as quarterly reports from major

banks kick off earnings season.

Following strong fourth-quarter results to end-2023, S&P 500

companies are expected to post a 5% year-on-year rise in

first-quarter earnings, according to LSEG IBES.

Investors are counting on robust corporate profit this year

to support rising valuations as the stock market has rallied to

record highs. The S&P 500's price-to-earnings ratio is hovering

at its highest in about two years.

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo all report results

on April 12. Delta Air Lines and BlackRock are among other

notable companies set to provide quarterly updates in the days

ahead.

4/ RED SHOOTS

Promising signs of a long-awaited turnaround in China's

economy keep building, helping keep stocks close to multi-month

highs into a two-day public holiday from Thursday.

The Shanghai Composite recently enjoyed its biggest rally in

a month after data showed the fastest expansion in manufacturing

for more than a year. That was followed by even more hopeful

numbers showing an acceleration in services activity, hinting

that consumer animal spirits might finally be stirring.

The coming days bring a parade of fresh indicators that

could support or subvert that optimism: consumer and producer

price indexes on Thursday and trade data on Friday.

These will be important litmus tests of consumer appetite.

The consumer price index meanwhile will be key since the first

rise for six months in the previous batch of data is what helped

Chinese stocks scale post-November peaks, though figures were

potentially skewed by Lunar New Year holidays.

5/ DELICATE

Rate setters elsewhere in the world are sandwiching the ECB:

Canada and New Zealand meet on Wednesday, Singapore and South

Korea on Friday.

No rate changes anticipated, but traders want a sense of

when rate cuts will come and how policymakers will navigate a

delicate balancing act. Markets have trimmed bets for a June

Canada rate cut after news the economy grew by 0.6% in January,

its fastest growth rate in a year.

New Zealand is in technical recession but with inflation

still above 4.5%, easing is not expected until August.

Singapore is grappling with sticky inflation and the risk of

elevated price pressures for longer as recent Taylor Swift

concerts fuelled service-sector price rises.

And Korea's central bank said in February it was too early

to pivot with the path for inflation, at 3.1%, uncertain.

Markets only bet on it cutting rates late this year.

(Graphics by Pasit Kongkunakornul, Sumanta Sen, Vineet Sachdev

and Kripa Jayaram, Compiled by Karin Strohecker; Editing by

Christopher Cushing)