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 carefully positive that the world might avoid a full-on trade war, while the prospect of more rate walkings in Japan this year briefly sent out the yen towards two-month highs.

In a week that started with U.S. President Donald Trump kicking off a trade war and whipping up market volatility, financiers have watched out for making any major relocations, considered that he followed through on his hazard to impose duties on China while giving Mexico and Canada a one-month reprieve.

The necessary U.S. jobs report for January is due ahead of the Wall Street open. Economists expect to see 170,000 employees contributed to nonfarm payrolls last month, but provided the prospective distortions from spells of cold weather and the California wildfires, the variety of forecasts is large.

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

“A quite large divergence from the consensus is still likely needed to move expectations significantly however extreme weather at this time of the year has in the past led to sharply weaker NFP readings and weather condition might affect today ´ s report,” he said.

Futures on the Nasdaq and disgaeawiki.info S&P 500 were trading mainly consistent on the day, while shares of

Amazon

in premarket trading on the back of

weak point

in the retailer’s cloud unit.

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

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

On the Asian market, tech stocks staged a rally, powered by Chinese retail financiers, who have actually struck on the AI theme in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek’s breakthrough.

DELICATE CHINA

Beijing’s apparently determined action to Trump’s tariffs has left room for settlements, analysts say, which has assisted repair investor belief.

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

“Whilst there is considerable sound and uncertainty, we don’t see intensifying trade tensions 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 reducing this year from the Fed, kenpoguy.com with a rate cut in July completely priced in, as policymakers remain in no hurry to begin the rate-cutting cycle again.

The dollar edged up 0.1% against a basket of currencies, having actually rallied 7% in 2015, as financiers priced in a far more aggressive policy stance from the Fed this year, drapia.org where rate cuts may be few and far between.

Other main banks are cutting rates of interest, while the Bank of Japan is tailoring up for a minimum of another rate hike this year. Strong wage development information has actually intensified the chances of tighter monetary policy, engel-und-waisen.de which has pushed the yen to two-month highs against the dollar.

The yen touched 150.96 per dollar overnight, its strongest 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 dropped 0.5% on Thursday as the BoE cut rates of interest and slashed its 2025 UK development projection.

In commodities, oil edged up, while gold steadied above $2,800 an ounce, near tape highs.

(Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore