EMERGING MARKETS-Emerging Market assets steady as investors await U.S. jobs data

By Ragini Mathur and Twesha Dikshit

Jan 9 (Reuters) - Emerging Market stocks and currencies were little changed on Friday as global investors cautiously awaited crucial employment data from the U.S. that could shape interest rate expectations in the world's largest economy.

Investors refrained from making big bets ahead of a U.S. jobs report that will likely show a labour market that is sluggish but not crumbling.

"The US labour market report for December is a high-stakes release that has the potential to trigger significant volatility as it will tell us whether the 75bps of US rate cuts since September was the right call from the government," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.

"The 'good news is bad news' theme could also hit stock markets and lead to some risk aversion... if we get too good a number for payrolls."

Markets are pricing in two cuts for the year, while a deeply divided Federal Reserve in its December meeting could mean just one cut.

Investors also braced for a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of U.S. President Donald Trump's global tariffs.

The MSCI emerging market stock index .MSCIEF dipped 0.1% but looked set for weekly gains of over 1% after hitting record highs earlier this week.

A corresponding currency gauge .MIEM00000CUS was down 0.2% and poised for weekly losses after six consecutive weeks of gains.

VENEZUELAN UPHEAVAL REVERBERATES THROUGH MARKETS

Sentiment this week was driven by U.S. strikes on Venezuela, with the capture of President Nicolas Maduro creating geopolitical upheaval in the region.

Venezuelan sovereign bonds rallied earlier this week, fueled by investor optimism.

Senegal's international bonds climbed more than one cent, with the bond maturing in 2028 rising 1.7 euro cents to bid at 74 cents on the euro.

Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said on Thursday the debt-ridden country would not need to implement a restructuring plan despite a difficult repayment schedule.

In regional moves, the equity indexes in Hungary .BUX and Romania .BETI were trading in green and set for weekly gains of about 4% each.

The Hungarian Forint EURHUF= and the Romanian Leu EURRON= were, however, lower against the Euro on Friday, poised for weekly drops of 1% and 0.1%, respectively.

Romania's economy grew 1.7% on the year in the third quarter, official data showed on Friday, above a preliminary estimate of 1.6% rise.

In Hungary, retail rose by an annual 2.5% in November following a 3.1% rise in October.

Turkey's benchmark equity index .XU100 was on track to close the week with gains of about 6%, while the lira TRY= remained nearly flat over the same period.

Elsewhere, EU nations were expected to approve the signing of the bloc's largest-ever free trade accord with the South American group Mercosur on Friday.

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