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Bloomberg

European stocks rose as Vodafone Group Plc led telecommunications companies higher on better- than-estimated results. The yen weakened to a seven-year low and the ruble dropped for the first time in three days.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.4 percent by 10:25 a.m. in London. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures added 0.1 percent after the gauge closed at a record. The yen declined after the Yomiuri newspaper said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may call a snap election if he scraps a planned sales-tax increase. Russia’s currency slid 1.2 percent against the dollar. Trading on Shanghai’s bourse surged to a record, more than double the amount on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, before the start of an exchange link with Hong Kong next week.

Vodafone gained the most in more than a year after reporting a smaller decline in service revenue than analysts forecast. Abe said today in Beijing that he hasn’t decided on the timing of an election. U.S. equity indexes have risen to records amid signs the economy is weathering a global slowdown and the end of the Federal Reserve’s bond purchases.

“Company earnings are running reasonably well and markets have seen them, at least on the margin, as reassuring,” Raimund Saxinger, who helps oversee $22 billion as a fund manager at Frankfurt-Trust Investment GmbH, said in a phone interview. “There is some underlying strength in the global economy and we are not on the brink of recession or deflation.”

Vodafone Climbs

Three shares gained for every two that declined in the Stoxx 600, with trading volumes 16 percent less than the 30-day average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Vodafone climbed 5.4 percent, the most since August 2013. Henkel AG gained 4.3 percent after posting third-quarter profit that beat estimates and raising its full-year profitability forecast, helped by better-than-expected growth in Russia.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to a record 2,038.26 yesterday, bringing its rebound from a six-month low reached Oct. 15 to 9.4 percent.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese e-commerce giant that debuted in New York this year, jumped 4 percent to a record $119.15 yesterday. With China celebrating Singles Day today -- a twist on Valentines Day -- the company is aiming to exceed the amount of transactions it recorded on Nov. 11 last year, when more than $1 billion of goods were sold via its platform in the first 20 minutes of the day, according to the Hangzhou, China- based company’s website.

Shanghai Trading

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.2 percent. More than 330 billion yuan ($54 billion) of shares in the gauge changed hands today, the most since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 2005. That compares with about $22 billion on the NYSE yesterday.

Russia’s currency, which is down 28 percent this year versus the dollar, surged yesterday after the country’s central bank said it will limit the amount of rubles available for selling.

The first test of how far the Bank of Russia will take this policy will come today at an auction for short-term loans known as repos, when the central bank offers the least seven-day loans in a month.

Japan’s currency sank as much as 1 percent to 116.01 per dollar, the weakest level since October 2007. Ten-year bonds fell, pushing the yield four basis points higher to 0.49 percent.

Sweden’s krona was the best-performing major currency as a report showed consumer prices unexpectedly rose in October from the previous month.

Gilts Fall

U.K. government bonds fell, pushing the 10-year yield three basis points higher to 2.24 percent. The rate on similar- maturity German debt was little changed at 0.84 percent.

West Texas Intermediate declined 0.2 percent to $77.27 a barrel and Brent futures fell 0.2 percent to $82.17 after reaching $81.23, a level not seen since October 2010. Crude inventories probably expanded by 1 million barrels last week, a Bloomberg News survey showed before a Nov. 13 government report.

Natural gas futures dropped for the second time in 10 days, retreating from a four-month high, on speculation that moderating cold later this month will limit heating demand.

The cost of insuring corporate debt fell, with the Markit iTraxx Crossover Index of credit-default swaps on high-yield companies declining six basis points to 337, the lowest since the benchmark started trading last month.

Average yields on investment-grade bonds in euros fell to a record, while yields for junk borrowers declined to the lowest since Sept. 25, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch data.

Investment-grade bonds in euros yield 1.96 percentage points less than notes in dollars, the widest spread since December 2005, the data show.