Jan 11 - Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com WHERE WILL IT END? (0820 GMT) Did retail investors save the day? The Nasdaq, which fell more than 2% at one point on Monday managed to close in positive territory, as bargain hunters swept in. It"s a scenario seen repeatedly in the past year and often attributed to amateur traders. Buy buyside analysts were also out in force with buy-the-dip advice, noting that markets were well on their way to pricing the likelihood of four U.S. rate hikes this year, making further hawkish surprises harder. Possibly, that"s kept the dollar flatlining this month, well off 16-month highs touched at the end of November, while Treasury yields on Monday snapped a six-session rising streak. As we write, Wall Street futures appear undecided on direction though European shares are opening firmer. Bar any fresh news, markets will likely wait to see if Wednesday"s U.S. consumer inflation print indeed breaches 7%, as anticipated. In a reminder of global inflation pressures, a survey showed Japanese households" inflation expectations at a more than two-year high. read more Policymakers seem calmly confident though they can avert runaway inflation; pre-released comments show Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will tell Congress the bank would "prevent higher inflation from becoming entrenched" read more . And while euro area inflation is running at 5%, ECB chief economist Philip Lane says he does not see prices above the 2% target in the medium term . Markets for now remain convinced that the interest rate peak, the so-called terminal rate, will be lower than in previous cycles. Goldman Sachs is among those warning that U.S. terminal rate pricing is too low. But with the Nasdaq market cap down more than 4% this year, it may be bargain-hunting time. Key developments that should provide more direction to markets on Tuesday: -"Grand Theft Auto" video game maker Take-Two Interactive to buy Zynga for $11 billion read more -Britons splurged on eating at home pre-Xmas, shunned restaurants read more -ECB President Christine Lagarde to speak -Fed speakers: Chairman Jerome Powell; Kansas City President Esther George -U.S. 3-year note auction (Sujata Rao) ***** DIP-BUYING TUESDAY? (0712 GMT) European shares look set for some kind of a rebound this morning as rising futures for the main benchmarks show investors are ready to buy at least some of yesterday"s dip. On that note, Marko Kolanovic, chief global markets strategist at JPMorgan wrote yesterday that Wall Street"s recent sell-off presents a buying opportunity. read more Euro STOXX 50, DAX, FTSE and IBEX futures are up between 0.1% and 0.4% but on Wall Street, futures are still slightly in the red. Rising yields are indeed keeping the pressure on equity markets and investors still very much focused on Wednesday"s U.S. inflation data with the headline CPI seen climbing to 7% year-on-year. (Julien Ponthus)