European stocks head for 7th weekly gain

Yen at two-month high up on rate hike bets

Gold stable near record peak

By Amanda Cooper

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) -

U.S. stock futures on Friday ahead of U.S. payrolls data, with financiers cautiously optimistic that the world might prevent a full-on trade war, while the possibility of more rate walkings in Japan this year briefly sent the yen towards two-month highs.

In a week that began with U.S. President Donald Trump starting a trade war and whipping up market volatility, investors have actually watched out for making any major relocations, considered that he followed through on his danger to enforce responsibilities on China while granting Mexico and Canada a one-month reprieve.

The all-important 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 winter and the California wildfires, the variety of projections is broad.

“The focus for the financial markets in current weeks has actually been very much on Trump and his economic policies, in specific on trade, however today there is the potential for the tasks information to influence Fed rate expectations,” Derek Halpenny, a currency strategist at MUFG, said.

“A quite large divergence from the consensus is still most likely needed to shift expectations notably but extreme weather condition at this time of the year has in the past resulted in dramatically weaker NFP readings and weather condition might affect today ´ s report,” he said.

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

Amazon

insinuated premarket trading on the back of

weakness

in the retailer’s cloud unit.

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

European stocks have staged their finest performance 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 investors, who have actually caught the AI theme in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek’s breakthrough.

DELICATE CHINA

Beijing’s apparently measured response to Trump’s tariffs has left room for settlements, experts say, which has assisted repair financier sentiment.

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

“Whilst there is significant sound and uncertainty, we do not see intensifying trade tensions as a video game changer in the prospects for the Chinese market,” said James Cook, financial investment director for emerging markets at Federated Hermes.

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

The dollar edged up 0.1% against a basket of currencies, having rallied 7% last year, as financiers priced in an even more aggressive policy stance from the Fed this year, where rate cuts might be scarce.

Other main banks are cutting rates of interest, while the Bank of Japan is tailoring up for a minimum of another rate trek this year. Strong wage growth information has actually beefed up 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 overnight, its greatest level considering that December 10, before relieving to leave the dollar up 0.4% on the day at 152.155.

Sterling reversed earlier losses to increase 0.1% to $1.2449, having dropped 0.5% on Thursday as the BoE cut interest rates and slashed its 2025 UK development forecast.

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

(Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore