European stocks head for 7th weekly gain

Yen at two-month high up on rate hike 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 data, with financiers meticulously positive that the world may avoid 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 started with U.S. President Donald Trump starting a trade war and whipping up market volatility, financiers have watched out for making any major moves, given that he followed through on his threat to enforce responsibilities on China while approving Mexico and 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 offered the possible 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 been very much on Trump and his financial policies, in specific on trade, however today there is the capacity for the tasks information to influence Fed rate expectations," Derek Halpenny, a currency strategist at MUFG, said.

"A quite big divergence from the agreement is still likely required to move expectations notably but severe weather at this time of the year has in the past led to dramatically weaker NFP readings and weather condition could 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 unit.

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

European stocks have actually staged their best efficiency in a years against Wall Street in the very 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 financiers, who have attacked on the AI theme in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek's advancement.

DELICATE CHINA

Beijing's apparently measured reaction to Trump's tariffs has actually left room for negotiations, experts say, which has assisted repair investor belief.

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

"Whilst there is substantial noise and uncertainty, we don't see escalating trade stress as a 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 alleviating this year from the Fed, with a rate cut in July completely 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, visualchemy.gallery as investors priced in an even more aggressive policy position from the Fed this year, gratisafhalen.be where rate cuts may be couple of and far in between.

Other main banks are cutting rate of interest, while the Bank of Japan is tailoring up for a minimum of another rate hike this year. Strong wage growth data has actually intensified the chances of tighter monetary policy, orcz.com which has pressed the yen to two-month highs against the dollar.

The yen touched 150.96 per dollar over night, its greatest level because 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 growth forecast.

In products, oil edged up, while gold steadied above $2,800 an ounce, close to tape-record highs.

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