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 information, with financiers carefully positive that the world might prevent a full-on trade war, while the prospect of more rate hikes in Japan this year briefly sent out the yen towards two-month highs.

In a week that began with U.S. President Donald Trump beginning a trade war and up market volatility, financiers have watched out for making any major relocations, considered that he followed through on his threat to enforce duties on China while granting Mexico and Canada a one-month reprieve.

The necessary U.S. tasks report for January is due ahead of the Wall Street open. Economists expect to see 170,000 workers contributed to nonfarm payrolls last month, however provided the potential distortions from spells of cold weather and the California wildfires, the series of projections is large.

"The focus for the financial markets in current weeks has been extremely much on Trump and his economic policies, in specific 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 quite large divergence from the agreement is still most likely needed to move expectations especially however extreme weather at this time of the year has in the past led to sharply weaker NFP readings and weather could affect today ´ s report," he said.

Futures on the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were trading mainly constant 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 previously today, classifieds.ocala-news.com following a wave of strong revenues from the likes of Danish weight-loss drugmaker Novo Nordisk, German software application business SAP and French lender BNP Paribas.

European stocks have actually staged their finest efficiency in a decade 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 caught the AI theme in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek's development.

DELICATE CHINA

Beijing's seemingly measured reaction to Trump's tariffs has left space for negotiations, experts say, which has actually helped repair financier 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 intensifying trade tensions 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% in 2015, as investors priced in a much more aggressive policy stance from the Fed this year, where rate cuts might be rare.

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