European stocks head for 7th weekly gain

Yen at two-month high on rate trek 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 cautiously optimistic that the world might prevent a full-on trade war, while the prospect 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 beginning a trade war and whipping up market volatility, investors have watched out for making any major moves, considered that he followed through on his threat to impose tasks on China while giving Mexico and Canada a one-month reprieve.

The critical U.S. jobs report for coastalplainplants.org January is due ahead of the Wall Street open. Economists expect to see 170,000 workers added to nonfarm payrolls last month, however given the prospective distortions from spells of winter and the California wildfires, the variety of forecasts is broad.

"The focus for the monetary markets in current weeks has been really much on Trump and his economic policies, in specific on trade, however today there is the potential for the tasks data to affect Fed rate expectations," Derek Halpenny, a currency strategist at MUFG, said.

"A quite big divergence from the agreement is still most likely required to shift expectations notably however severe 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 steady on the day, while shares of

Amazon

slipped in premarket trading on the back of

weakness

in the retailer's cloud unit.

In Europe, securityholes.science the STOXX 600 headed for a seventh straight week of gains, trading flat on the day after having struck record highs earlier this week, following a spate of strong revenues from the similarity Danish weight-loss drugmaker Novo Nordisk, German software application company SAP and French loan provider BNP Paribas.

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

DELICATE CHINA

Beijing's seemingly determined response to Trump's tariffs has left room for townshipmarket.co.za settlements, analysts say, which has helped repair financier belief.

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

"Whilst there is significant 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, 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 fully priced in, as policymakers remain in no rush 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 financiers priced in an even more aggressive policy position from the Fed this year, 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 [smfsimple.com](https://www.smfsimple.com/ultimateportaldemo/index.php?action=profile