European stocks little changed

On Wednesday an early rally in European shares deflated, leaving the market little changed. That’s been the state of play for investors in recent days.

While Donald Trump’s election last week dominated market moves and created a rift among industries, it has left the benchmark gauge largely flat. But intraday, investors have had to contend with the wildest swings since Brexit, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index fluctuating 1.4 percent on average this month. As of 10:41 a.m. in London, the gauge added 0.2 percent, giving up gains as of much as 0.6 percent.

Since Trump’s election, financials firms have rallied amid a surge in government-debt yields, while bond proxies have dropped. After an initial jump on the result, the Stoxx 600 has barely moved in five days.

On Wednesday, Prudential Plc was among the biggest contributors to the move in the Stoxx 600, rising 1.8 percent after the insurer said it will increase its dividend amid a jump in sales in Asia. Bouygues SA climbed 4.9 percent as the French conglomerate reported an improvement in telecom profitability. Bayer AG sank 5 percent, dragging down chemical companies, after issuing 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) of convertible bonds.

Analysts spent early November warning a Trump victory in the U.S. presidential election would make the Federal Reserve less likely to raise interest rates. What happened instead is that it made a December increase a near certainty.

Asian stocks rose for the first time in four days amid a rebound in emerging-market assets that got battered after the U.S. election. Tokyo shares rallied to near a bull market. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.5 percent to 134.81 as of 4:01 p.m. in Hong Kong, while Japan’s Topix index jumped 1.3 percent.