European stocks head for 7th weekly gain

Yen at two-month high on rate hike bets

Gold steady near record peak

By Amanda Cooper

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) -

U.S. stock futures steadied on Friday ahead of U.S. payrolls data, with financiers meticulously positive that the world might avoid a full-on trade war, while the prospect of more in Japan this year briefly sent the yen towards two-month highs.

In a week that began with U.S. President Donald Trump beginning a trade war and whipping up market volatility, financiers have actually watched out for making any significant moves, given that he followed through on his threat to enforce duties on China while giving Mexico and Canada a one-month reprieve.

The all-important U.S. tasks report for January is due ahead of the Wall Street open. Economists anticipate to see 170,000 employees contributed to nonfarm payrolls last month, however provided the possible distortions from spells of cold weather condition and the California wildfires, the range of forecasts is large.

“The focus for the monetary markets in recent weeks has actually been quite on Trump and his financial policies, in specific on trade, however today there is the capacity for the tasks data to affect Fed rate expectations,” Derek Halpenny, a currency strategist at MUFG, said.

“A pretty big divergence from the agreement is still most likely required to move expectations notably however extreme weather condition at this time of the year has in the past resulted in dramatically weaker NFP readings and weather condition could impact today ´ s report,” he said.

Futures on the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were trading mainly constant on the day, while shares of

Amazon

slipped in premarket trading on the back of

weak point

in the retailer’s cloud system.

In Europe, the STOXX 600 headed for a seventh straight week of gains, trading flat on the day after having hit record highs earlier this week, following a spate of strong incomes from the similarity Danish weight-loss drugmaker Novo Nordisk, German software application company SAP and French loan provider BNP Paribas.

European stocks have staged their finest performance in a years against Wall Street in the first six weeks of 2025, but the focus is now on whether those gains can be sustained.

On the Asian market, wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr tech stocks staged a rally, raovatonline.org powered by Chinese retail financiers, who have pounced on the AI style in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek’s development.

DELICATE CHINA

Beijing’s apparently determined response to Trump’s tariffs has left space for settlements, experts say, which has actually helped repair investor belief.

China’s blue-chip stock index closed up 1.3% after touching a one-month high.

“Whilst there is substantial sound and uncertainty, we don’t see intensifying trade stress as a video game changer in the potential customers for the Chinese market,” said James Cook, investment director for emerging markets at Federated Hermes.

Markets are pricing in 43 basis points of relieving this year from the Fed, with a rate cut in July fully priced in, as policymakers remain in no rush to start the rate-cutting cycle again.

The dollar edged up 0.1% against a basket of currencies, having actually rallied 7% last year, as financiers priced in an even more aggressive policy stance from the Fed this year, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr where rate cuts may be couple of and far between.

Other main banks are cutting rate of interest, while the Bank of Japan is tailoring up for larsaluarna.se a minimum of another rate hike this year. Strong wage development information has actually boosted the chances of tighter monetary policy, which has actually pressed the yen to two-month highs against the dollar.

The yen touched 150.96 per dollar over night, its greatest level given that December 10, before alleviating to leave the dollar up 0.4% on the day at 152.155.

Sterling reversed earlier losses to rise 0.1% to $1.2449, having actually dropped 0.5% on Thursday as the BoE cut rates of interest and slashed its 2025 UK growth projection.

In products, oil edged up, while gold steadied above $2,800 an ounce, near to tape-record highs.

(Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore