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HK stocks set for greatest weekly performance in 4 months

Yen at two month high up on rising bets on rate walkings this year

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

By Ankur Banerjee

SINGAPORE, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Global stocks meandered on Friday ahead of crucial U.S. payrolls information as investors thought about potential customers that a wider trade war might be prevented, while the yen hit its greatest in nearly two months on increasing odds of more rate walkings in Japan this year.

In a week that started with U.S. President Donald Trump starting a trade war, investors have been hesitant in making significant relocations as threatened tasks on China were executed.

Beijing's measured tit-for-tat response has actually left space for negotiations, experts state, and that has enabled traders to focus on the AI theme in China in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek's advancement.

European futures indicated a controlled 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 staged their finest efficiency in a years against Wall Street in the very first six weeks of 2025, 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 relieved 0.21%.

Futures for Nasdaq and S&P 500 were down about 0.2% as shares of Amazon slipped in prolonged trading over night on weakness 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% rise in the week, morphomics.science its greatest weekly performance sustained by DeepSeek-led AI bets.

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 sound and uncertainty, we don ´ t see intensifying 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.

"China's larger issue is not Trump however the domestic economy."

On the financial front, out of work claims, layoffs and labour costs/productivity supplied a beginning to Friday's keenly awaited January work report, with the data most likely to show the impact of wild fires in California and winter throughout much of the nation.

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

"Markets could face some volatility around the information if it beats expectations, however it won't change the path of the FOMC policy as more data will be required," 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 hurry to begin the rate-cutting cycle again.

While political uncertainties kept investors careful, fears have actually alleviated that Trump's method to tariffs could intensify into an international trade war.

RISING YEN

The Japanese yen has actually been on a tear today buoyed by safe-haven circulations as well as increasing expectations of the Bank of Japan increasing interest rates 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 strongest level since December 10 but was last a little weaker at 151.71. The currency is headed for an over 2% increase against the dollar this week, its greatest weekly efficiency 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 alerted it would be careful going forward, in the face of a possible inflation uptick and geopolitical worries.

Oil rates increased marginally on Friday however were on track for a third straight week of decline.

Gold costs steadied on Friday near record-high levels and were headed for their sixth succeeding weekly gain driven by safe-haven flows.

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee; extra reporting by Stephen Culp, Marc Jones and botdb.win Alun John; editing by Shri Navaratnam and Sam Holmes)