European stocks head for 7th weekly gain
Yen at two-month high on rate trek 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 information, with investors carefully positive that the world may avoid a full-on trade war, while the possibility 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 beginning a trade war and whipping up market volatility, financiers have been careful of making any significant moves, considered that he followed through on his danger to enforce duties on China while approving Mexico and Canada a one-month reprieve.
The critical U.S. jobs report for January is due ahead of the Wall Street open. Economists expect to see 170,000 employees included to nonfarm payrolls last month, but given the prospective distortions from spells of cold weather and the California wildfires, the series of forecasts is large.
"The focus for the financial markets in recent weeks has been quite on Trump and his economic policies, in particular on trade, but today there is the capacity for the jobs information to influence Fed rate expectations," Derek Halpenny, a currency strategist at MUFG, said.
"A quite big divergence from the agreement is still likely needed to shift expectations significantly however extreme weather condition at this time of the year has in the past led to sharply weaker NFP readings and weather might impact today ´ s report," he said.
Futures on the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were trading mainly stable 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 a seventh straight week of gains, trading flat on the day after having actually struck record highs earlier this week, following a wave of strong earnings from the likes of Danish weight-loss drugmaker Novo Nordisk, German software application company SAP and French lender BNP Paribas.
European stocks have actually staged their finest performance in a decade against Wall Street in the very first 6 weeks of 2025, but 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 struck on the AI style in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek's advancement.
DELICATE CHINA
Beijing's seemingly determined reaction to Trump's tariffs has actually left room for settlements, experts state, which has assisted repair belief.
China's blue-chip stock index closed up 1.3% after touching a one-month high.
"Whilst there is significant sound and uncertainty, we don't see intensifying trade tensions as a 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 begin the rate-cutting cycle again.
The dollar edged up 0.1% against a basket of currencies, having rallied 7% in 2015, as investors priced in a far more aggressive policy stance from the Fed this year, sitiosecuador.com where rate cuts may be rare.
Other main banks are cutting interest rates, while the Bank of Japan is tailoring up for a minimum of another rate trek this year. Strong wage development information has intensified the possibilities of tighter financial policy, which has pressed the yen to two-month highs against the dollar.
The yen touched 150.96 per dollar over night, its strongest level given that December 10, before reducing 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 development 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
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Futures Steady Ahead of US Jobs Data, Tariff Reprieve
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