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European stocks head for 7th weekly gain

Yen at two-month high up on rate trek bets

Gold constant near record peak

By Amanda Cooper

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) -

U.S. stock futures steadied on Friday ahead of U.S. payrolls information, higgledy-piggledy.xyz with investors very carefully optimistic that the world might avoid a full-on trade war, while the prospect of more rate hikes in Japan this year briefly sent 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, investors have actually watched out for making any significant relocations, considered that he followed through on his threat to impose duties on China while granting Mexico and Canada a one-month reprieve.

The necessary U.S. jobs report for wiki.dulovic.tech January is due ahead of the Wall Street open. Economists expect to see 170,000 employees added to nonfarm payrolls last month, but offered the prospective distortions from spells of cold weather condition and the California wildfires, the series of projections is wide.

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

"A pretty large divergence from the consensus is still most likely needed to shift expectations especially but extreme weather at this time of the year has in the past led to sharply weaker NFP readings and weather might affect today ´ s report," he said.

Futures on the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were trading mainly stable 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 today, ura.cc following a spate of strong revenues from the similarity Danish weight-loss drugmaker Novo Nordisk, German software application business SAP and French loan provider BNP Paribas.

European stocks have staged their best efficiency 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 investors, who have actually attacked on the AI theme in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek's advancement.

DELICATE CHINA

Beijing's relatively measured action to Trump's tariffs has actually left room for settlements, analysts say, wiki.rolandradio.net which has helped repair financier 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 do not see escalating trade stress as a video game changer in the potential customers for the Chinese market," said James Cook, financial investment director for emerging markets at Federated Hermes.

Markets are pricing in 43 basis points of easing this year from the Fed, with a rate cut in July totally 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 rallied 7% last year, as financiers priced in a much more aggressive policy position from the Fed this year, where rate cuts might 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 growth data has intensified the chances of tighter monetary policy, which has actually pushed the yen to two-month highs against the dollar.

The yen touched 150.96 per dollar overnight, its strongest level since 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 growth projection.

In products, oil edged up, experienciacortazar.com.ar while gold steadied above $2,800 an ounce, classihub.in near to tape highs.

(Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; by Stephen Culp, Marc Jones and Alun John; editing by Shri Navaratnam, Sam Holmes, Gareth Jones and Angus MacSwan)