LONDON—The bulls were enjoying the good life in Europe on Thursday after the world’s most influential central banker, Jerome Powell, signaled this year’s frantic pace of U.S. interest rate hikes could be about to slow. It was a textbook ‘risk on’ pattern, with both the STOXX 600 and MSCI’s main world stocks index hitting their…

TOKYO—Global shares were mostly higher on Wednesday, ahead of a closely watched speech by the Federal Reserve chief that may give clues about future interest rate hikes. Investors were also eyeing developments in China, where protests have erupted over the “zero-COVID” strategy that has confined millions of people to their homes, sometimes for months. France’s…

LONDON/SYDNEY—Stocks and oil gained on Tuesday on hopes that public unrest in China might prompt an earlier loosening of COVID-19 curbs in the world’s biggest economy, with the yuan up and the dollar down as investor appetite for riskier assets grew. The Euro STOXX 600 gained 0.4 percent, recovering from its worst session in almost…

SYDNEY/LONDON—Stocks and commodities prices suffered a broad sell-off on Monday as rare protests in major Chinese cities against the country’s strict zero-COVID-19 curbs hit growth expectations in the world’s second-largest economy. Clashes between police and protesters across several major cities over the weekend halted a tentative stocks rally that gathered pace last week as hope-starved…