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HK stocks set for greatest in 4 months

Yen at 2 month high on rising bets on rate walkings this year

Gold steady near record peak, oil set for 3rd weekly drop

By Ankur Banerjee

SINGAPORE, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Global stocks meandered on Friday ahead of essential U.S. payrolls information as financiers thought about potential customers that a broader trade war might be averted, disgaeawiki.info while the yen struck its highest in nearly 2 months on rising chances of more rate walkings in Japan this year.

In a week that began with U.S. President Donald Trump kicking off a trade war, financiers have been hesitant in making significant moves as threatened tasks on China were carried out.

Beijing's measured tit-for-tat response has actually left space for negotiations, analysts state, and that has actually permitted traders to focus on the AI theme in China in the wake of home-grown start-up DeepSeek's development.

European futures indicated a subdued open after the pan-European STOXX 600 index closed at a record high on Thursday on the back of robust business incomes.

European stocks have staged their best performance in a years against Wall Street in the very first six weeks of 2025, however focus is now on whether those gains can be sustained.

Eurostoxx 50 futures were down 0.41%, while FTSE futures fell 0.39%. DAX futures eased 0.21%.

Futures for archmageriseswiki.com Nasdaq and S&P 500 were down about 0.2% as shares of Amazon insinuated prolonged trading overnight on weak point in the retailer's cloud computing unit and trademarketclassifieds.com soft forecast.

In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index struck a three-month high, poised for a 4% rise in the week, its strongest weekly efficiency sustained by DeepSeek-led AI bets.

China's blue-chip stock index was 0.4% higher after touching a one-month high leaving MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan at its greatest because mid-December.

"Whilst there is significant noise and uncertainty, we wear ´ t see escalating trade tensions as a video game changer in the prospects for the Chinese market," said James Cook, financial investment director for emerging markets at Federated Hermes.

"China's bigger issue is not Trump but the domestic economy."

On the financial front, unemployed claims, layoffs and labour costs/productivity provided a beginning to Friday's acutely awaited January work report, with the data most likely to reveal the impact of wild fires in California and winter throughout much of the country.

Nonfarm payrolls are expected to have increased by 170,000 tasks last month after surging 256,000 in December, a Reuters survey of financial experts showed.

"Markets could deal with some volatility around the information if it beats expectations, however it won't change the course of the FOMC policy as more data will be required," said Anderson Alves, a trader with ActivTrades.

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 hurry to start the rate-cutting cycle again.

While political uncertainties kept financiers careful, systemcheck-wiki.de fears have actually relieved that Trump's approach to tariffs might escalate into an international trade war.

RISING YEN

The Japanese yen has been on a tear today buoyed by safe-haven circulations as well as increasing expectations of the Bank of Japan increasing rate of interest this year, with markets pricing in 34 basis points of hikes for the year.

The yen touched 150.96 per dollar in early trading, its strongest level because December 10 however was last a tad weaker at 151.71. The currency is headed for an over 2% rise against the dollar today, its greatest weekly performance since late November.

Sterling was 0.1% lower at $1.24255 after dropping 0.5% on Thursday as the BoE cut rates of interest by 25 basis points but warned it would be mindful moving forward, in the face of a possible inflation uptick and geopolitical concerns.

Oil costs rose marginally on Friday but were on track for a third straight week of decrease.

Gold prices steadied on Friday near record-high levels and were headed for their sixth successive weekly gain driven by safe-haven flows.

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee; extra reporting by Stephen Culp, Marc Jones and Alun John; modifying by Shri Navaratnam and Sam Holmes)