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European stocks head for 7th weekly gain

Yen at two-month high up on rate trek 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 investors very carefully optimistic that the world may avoid 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 kicking off a trade war and whipping up market volatility, financiers have watched out for making any significant relocations, offered that he followed through on his threat to enforce tasks on China while approving Mexico and Canada a one-month reprieve.

The necessary U.S. tasks report for January is due ahead of the Wall Street open. Economists anticipate to see 170,000 employees contributed to nonfarm payrolls last month, however given the possible distortions from spells of winter and the California wildfires, the series of forecasts is broad.

"The focus for the monetary markets in current weeks has been quite on Trump and his financial policies, in particular on trade, but today there is the capacity for the jobs data to affect Fed rate expectations," Derek Halpenny, a currency strategist at MUFG, said.

"A quite large divergence from the agreement is still likely required to move expectations notably but severe weather condition at this time of the year has in the past resulted in dramatically weaker NFP readings and weather condition might affect today ´ s report," he said.

Futures on the Nasdaq and engel-und-waisen.de 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 system.

In Europe, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr the STOXX 600 headed for a seventh straight week of gains, trading flat on the day after having struck record highs previously today, following a spate of strong revenues from the likes of Danish weight-loss drugmaker Novo Nordisk, German software application company SAP and French lending institution BNP Paribas.

European stocks have actually staged their finest efficiency in a decade against Wall Street in the first 6 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 development.

DELICATE CHINA

Beijing's relatively determined response to Trump's tariffs has left room for negotiations, analysts say, which has actually assisted repair financier belief.

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

"Whilst there is significant noise and uncertainty, we don't see escalating trade stress as a 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 easing 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 a far more aggressive policy stance from the Fed this year, where rate cuts may be rare.

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

The yen touched 150.96 per dollar over night, its strongest level given that December 10, e.bike.free.fr before reducing to leave the dollar up 0.4% on the day at 152.155.

earlier losses to increase 0.1% to $1.2449, having dropped 0.5% on Thursday as the BoE cut interest rates and slashed its 2025 UK development projection.

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

(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)