Europe's Bourses Rally After Democrats Sweep US Midterms

European indexes flipped green Wednesday as investors cheered a decisive US midterm result. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 each advanced 1.36% by 12:10 pm CET, and the Euro Stoxx 50 climbed 1.63%. Spain's IBEX 35 outran them all, surging 2.41%.

The catalyst: Democrats seized control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, according to Breaking The News, snatching Republican strongholds along the way — including a Senate seat in Texas for the first time since 1988. That political clarity landed well on a continent that had spent the morning drifting.

It wasn't a straight line. European markets opened mixed, and futures had pointed lower as traders waited on a loaded data calendar: services readings for Germany, the UK and the eurozone, plus the euro area's October inflation print and Spanish unemployment figures. Novo Nordisk and BMW both dropped third-quarter results before the opening bell.

Britain's FTSE 100 added 1.13% by 12:11 pm CET. The euro firmed 0.46% against the dollar a few minutes later, trading at 1.12433.

The rally marks a sharp turn from Tuesday, when major European indexes closed lower as investors weighed escalating US-Iran tensions heading into the vote. Now the focus shifts to the incoming economic data and how the new balance of power in Washington reshapes the mood.