Feb 14 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian

markets.

A rally in U.S. stocks and bonds looked counterintuitive after

PPI headlines appeared to be the second hot inflation read this

week, but, under the hood, key components looked more like they

were moving the direction the Fed and Wall Street want.

But even while investors in New York markets lifted the S&P

500 a percent and the Nasdaq more than that on

Thursday, continued gains on Asia bourses Friday are hardly

assured, given the challenge of navigating the twists and turns

from President Donald Trump as he pushes for a peace deal in

Ukraine while setting up for a global trade war.

The prospect of Russia-Ukraine peace talks helped foster the

risk-on mood in stocks, while the inflation news with potential

dovish implications for Fed officials reversed Wednesday's bond

slump and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note

fell almost 10 basis points to around 4.53%.

The bigger-than-forecast 0.4% rise in January's Producer

Price Index followed Wednesday's news that consumer prices

accelerated by the most in nearly 1-1/2 years in January. But

some details suggested a more moderate increase in January in

the PCE price index that is closely tracked by the U.S. central

bank for its 2% target.

For instance, physician's office and hospital prices were

either broadly unchanged or rose just slightly. Healthcare, with

a nearly 20% weighting in the core PCE, declined 0.06%.

Portfolio management prices, another important item on core PCE,

posted a modest 0.4% increase.

Following the PPI data, U.S. rate futures priced in 31 bps

of easing this year, compared with 27 bps late on Wednesday,

according to LSEG calculations. The next rate reduction is

expected either at the October or December meeting.

Russia said on Thursday that Ukraine would "of course" be

involved in talks to end the war, but there would be a separate

U.S.-Russian strand to the negotiations. Ukraine and its

European allies meanwhile demanded that they be included in any

peace negotiations.

The markets took in stride Trump's oft-promised roadmap for

charging reciprocal tariffs on every country that puts duties on

U.S. imports, his latest trade salvo directed at American

friends and foes.

The dollar pared losses a tad on the tariff headlines and

against the yen it was trading at 152.97 yen late in the day,

down about 0.9%. The stronger yen in recent weeks has been a

negative for the Nikkei but weakness in Asia Thursday

was cited as a reason for the index's 1.28% gain.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet

Trump on Thursday, hoping concessions on tariffs, fresh business

deals and the prospect of cooperation on China will win the U.S.

president's favor.

Here are key developments that could provide more direction

to markets on Friday:

- South Korea unemployment (Jan)

- Malaysia GDP (Q4)

- US Retail Sales (Jan)

(Editing by Diane Craft)