HK stocks set for greatest weekly performance in 4 months

Yen at 2 month high on rising bets on rate walkings this year

Gold constant near record peak, oil set for 3rd weekly drop

By Ankur Banerjee

SINGAPORE, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Global stocks meandered on Friday ahead of key U.S. payrolls data as investors considered prospects that a wider trade war could be averted, while the yen struck its greatest in almost 2 months on rising chances of more rate hikes in Japan this year.

In a week that began with U.S. President Donald Trump beginning a trade war, financiers have actually been reluctant in making major relocations as threatened tasks on China were executed.

Beijing’s measured tit-for-tat action has left space for negotiations, analysts state, shiapedia.1god.org and that has allowed traders to concentrate on the AI theme in China in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek’s advancement.

European futures pointed to a subdued open after the pan-European STOXX 600 index closed at a record high on Thursday on the back of robust company incomes.

European stocks have actually staged their finest performance in a decade against Wall Street in the first 6 weeks of 2025, wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de but focus is now on whether those gains can be sustained.

Eurostoxx 50 futures were down 0.41%, while FTSE futures fell 0.39%. DAX futures eased 0.21%.

for Nasdaq and S&P 500 were down about 0.2% as shares of Amazon insinuated extended trading overnight on weak point in the retailer’s cloud computing system and soft projection.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index hit a three-month high, poised for a 4% increase in the week, its strongest weekly performance sustained by DeepSeek-led AI bets.

China’s blue-chip stock index was 0.4% greater after touching a one-month high leaving MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan at its highest since mid-December.

“Whilst there is considerable noise and uncertainty, we put on ´ t see intensifying trade stress as a game changer in the potential customers for the Chinese market,” said James Cook, financial investment director for emerging markets at Federated Hermes.

“China’s larger issue is not Trump but the domestic economy.”

On the economic front, unemployed claims, layoffs and labour costs/productivity offered a beginning to Friday’s keenly awaited January work report, with the data most likely to reveal the impact of wild fires in California and winter throughout much of the country.

Nonfarm payrolls are anticipated to have increased by 170,000 jobs last month after surging 256,000 in December, a Reuters poll of economists revealed.

“Markets might face some volatility around the data if it beats expectations, however it will not change the course of the FOMC policy as more information will be needed,” said Anderson Alves, a trader with ActivTrades.

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

While political uncertainties kept investors careful, fears have alleviated that Trump’s approach to tariffs might escalate into a worldwide trade war.

RISING YEN

The Japanese yen has actually been on a tear this week buoyed by safe-haven flows along with increasing expectations of the Bank of Japan increasing rates of interest this year, with market value in 34 basis points of walkings for the year.

The yen touched 150.96 per dollar in early trading, its greatest level since December 10 but was last a tad weaker at 151.71. The currency is headed for hb9lc.org an over 2% increase against the dollar today, its greatest weekly performance because late November.

Sterling was 0.1% lower at $1.24255 after dropping 0.5% on Thursday as the BoE cut interest rates by 25 basis points however cautioned it would beware moving forward, in the face of a prospective inflation uptick and wiki.vst.hs-furtwangen.de geopolitical concerns.

Oil costs increased partially on Friday however were on track for a 3rd straight week of decrease.

Gold prices steadied on Friday near record-high levels and were headed for elearnportal.science their 6th succeeding weekly gain driven by safe-haven flows.

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee