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Global shares see relief rally

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Slew of corporate earnings on tap

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Treasury yields near lowest in over a month

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Yen strengthens on bets of more BOJ hikes

By Rae Wee and Stephen Culp

SINGAPORE/NEW YORK, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Global shares rose

on Thursday in a slight relief rally as fears of an escalating

trade war between the U.S. and its major trading partners ebbed,

while U.S. Treasury yields came under pressure as traders

pondered the country's rate outlook.

European stock futures pointed to solid gains ahead of a

slew of earnings releases, extending a rally from the previous

session in part due to a surge in healthcare stocks as sales of

Novo Nordisk's blockbuster drug Wegovy more than

doubled in the fourth quarter.

EUROSTOXX 50 futures rose 0.5%, while FTSE futures

jumped 0.66%. DAX futures climbed 0.57%.

Wall Street was similarly poised for a positive open, with

S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures gaining more

than 0.2% each.

Amazon's ( AMZN ) earnings are due later in the day, where

the pressure is on for it to deliver on lofty expectations for

cloud computing after lacklustre reports from Microsoft ( MSFT )

and Alphabet jolted investor faith in Big Tech's huge

investments in artificial intelligence.

And though many uncertainties remain under U.S. President

Donald Trump's new administration, markets were for now relieved

that things were not worse, particularly with regard to the

tit-for-tat tariff moves between the U.S. and its major trading

partners.

That helped lift global share markets and kept the dollar in

check, giving some respite to its peers that had been heavily

battered at the start of the week.

"Relief is probably a good way to characterise (the market

mood)," said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ.

The People's Bank of China on Thursday again set a

stronger-than-expected yuan midpoint fixing, though the yuan

still weakened after China sought the World Trade Organization's

intervention to rule on new tariffs imposed by Trump.

The onshore yuan fell to 7.2845 per dollar, while

its offshore counterpart eased 0.05% to 7.2862.

"Chinese authorities at this stage are not indicating or

showing any intention of weakening the yuan as part of the

response to the tariffs. I think that has definitely helped to

calm the market down," said ANZ's Goh.

China's CSI300 blue-chip index jumped more than 1%

as investors continued to bet on domestic AI firms following

Chinese start-up DeepSeek's breakthrough.

The Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.16%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

advanced 0.44%, while Japan's Nikkei

tacked on 0.6%.

RATES OUTLOOK

U.S. Treasury yields were hovering near their lowest in over

a month on Thursday, as investors were uncertain about the

outlook for rates in the world's largest economy.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that

while Trump wants lower interest rates, he will not ask the

Federal Reserve to cut rates.

Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network

that he and Trump are focused on the 10-year Treasury.

Bessent made the comments before Fed Vice Chair Philip

Jefferson, who said he is content to keep the central bank's

policy rate in its current position until policymakers get a

better sense of the net effects of the Trump administration's

policies on tariffs, immigration, deregulation and taxes.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was

last little changed at 4.4322%, while the two-year yield

edged slightly higher to 4.2034%.

Futures point to just about 45 basis points worth of easing

from the Fed by the year-end..

In currencies, the dollar was on the back foot.

"The central vibe running through trade has been the solid

bid in U.S. Treasuries, with the U.S. dollar finding increased

selling flows across the G10 FX complex," said Chris Weston,

head of research at Pepperstone.

Against the dollar, the euro hovered above the

$1.03 level and last bought $1.0391, while sterling

held near a one-month high and was fetching $1.2483.

The Bank of England announces its rate decision later on

Thursday, where it looks set to deliver a rate cut.

The yen, meanwhile, rose 0.1% to 152.465 per

dollar, helped by comments from Bank of Japan board member Naoki

Tamura who said the central bank must raise short-term interest

rates to at least 1% by the second half of fiscal 2025 to

contain inflation risks.

In commodities, oil prices rose, steadying from a sell-off

the previous day after Saudi Arabia's state oil company sharply

raised March oil prices.

U.S. crude edged 0.44% higher to $71.34 a barrel,

while Brent crude rose 0.36% to $74.88 per barrel.

Gold resumed its rally to firm near a record peak,

and was last at $2,865.72 an ounce.

"Gold is one of three things: it's an inflation hedge, it's

a dollar hedge or it's a disaster hedge," said Paul Nolte,

senior wealth adviser and market strategist at Murphy & Sylvest

in Elmhurst, Illinois.

"For much of the last five or six years, I would say gold

was a dollar hedge. Now it has become more of a hedge against

things going wrong."