European stocks head for 7th weekly gain
Yen at two-month high up on rate hike 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, with financiers carefully optimistic that the world may 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 starting a trade war and whipping up market volatility, financiers have actually been cautious of making any significant relocations, considered that he followed through on his threat to impose responsibilities on China while approving Mexico and Canada a one-month reprieve.
The critical U.S. tasks report for January is due ahead of the Wall Street open. Economists anticipate to see 170,000 workers contributed to nonfarm payrolls last month, however given the prospective distortions from spells of winter and the California wildfires, the variety of projections is large.
"The focus for the monetary markets in recent weeks has been quite on Trump and his economic policies, in particular on trade, but today there is the potential for the jobs 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 notably however severe weather at this time of the year has in the past resulted in greatly 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
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 actually hit record highs earlier this week, valetinowiki.racing following a spate of strong incomes from the likes of Danish weight-loss drugmaker Novo Nordisk, German software business SAP and French lending institution BNP Paribas.
European stocks have actually staged their finest efficiency in a years against Wall Street in the very 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 attacked on the AI style in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek's breakthrough.
DELICATE CHINA
Beijing's relatively determined reaction to Trump's tariffs has actually left space for negotiations, analysts say, which has actually assisted repair investor 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 don't see escalating trade tensions as a video game changer in the prospects 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, visualchemy.gallery with a rate cut in July completely priced in, as policymakers remain in no hurry to begin 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 an even more aggressive policy stance from the Fed this year, where might be rare.
Other main banks are cutting rates of interest, while the Bank of Japan is tailoring up for a minimum of another rate trek this year. Strong wage growth data has actually boosted 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 because December 10, before reducing to leave the dollar up 0.4% on the day at 152.155.
Sterling reversed earlier losses to increase 0.1% to $1.2449, having dropped 0.5% on Thursday as the BoE cut rate of interest and slashed its 2025 UK growth forecast.
In commodities, oil edged up, while gold steadied above $2,800 an ounce, close to tape highs.
(Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore
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Futures Steady Ahead of United States Jobs Data, Tariff Reprieve
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