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European stocks head for 7th weekly gain

Yen at two-month high on rate hike bets

Gold stable 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 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 kicking off a trade war and whipping up market volatility, financiers have watched out for tandme.co.uk making any significant relocations, considered that he followed through on his danger to enforce responsibilities on China while approving Mexico and ura.cc 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 included to nonfarm payrolls last month, however provided the potential distortions from spells of cold weather condition and the California wildfires, the series of forecasts is large.

"The focus for the financial markets in current weeks has actually been quite on Trump and his economic policies, in particular 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 likely required to move expectations significantly but severe weather at this time of the year has in the past resulted in sharply weaker NFP readings and weather could impact today ´ s report," he said.

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

Amazon

slipped in premarket trading on the back of

weakness

in the retailer's cloud system.

In Europe, engel-und-waisen.de 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 wave of strong incomes from the similarity Danish weight-loss drugmaker Novo Nordisk, German software application company SAP and French lender BNP Paribas.

European stocks have staged their best efficiency in a years against Wall Street in the first six 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 caught the AI theme in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek's development.

DELICATE CHINA

Beijing's apparently measured response to Trump's tariffs has actually left room for settlements, analysts state, which has actually helped repair investor sentiment.

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

"Whilst there is substantial noise and uncertainty, we do not see escalating trade tensions 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 alleviating this year from the Fed, forum.batman.gainedge.org with a rate cut in July fully 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 actually rallied 7% in 2015, as investors priced in a far more aggressive policy stance from the Fed this year, visualchemy.gallery where rate cuts might be scarce.

Other main banks are cutting interest rates, wiki.myamens.com while the Bank of Japan is tailoring up for at least another rate trek this year. Strong wage development information has intensified the possibilities of tighter monetary policy, suvenir51.ru which has pushed 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 easing 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 interest rates and slashed its 2025 UK growth projection.

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

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