European shares rose in early trading on Wednesday, bouncing from the previous session's sell-off, with Adecco surging 3.6 per cent after its fourth-quarter profit beat expectations.

The world's largest staffing group said it expects a pick-up in economic growth to increase demand for flexible labour this year, putting it on track to hit its margin target in 2015. Its shares were up 2.6 per cent.

Credit Suisse climbed again, up 1.6 per cent. The stock surged nearly 8 per cent on Tuesday after the Swiss lender said it had hired Prudential head Tidjane Thiam as its new CEO.

Bucking the trend, Deutsche Post fell 3.6 per cent after the postal and logistics firm gave a lower-than-expected profit target for 2015 as restructuring at its freight forwarding division continues to dampen earnings.

Shares in JCDecaux sank 6.2 per cent after the holding company of the Decaux family sold a 5.4 per cent stake in the outdoor advertising group.

At 0830 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.8 per cent at 1,565.39 points, after losing 1 per cent on Tuesday.

US stocks dropped on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 falling 1.7 per cent and turning negative on the year, on mounting worries over the pace of economic growth while the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates as soon as June.

"The strong rise in the dollar is hurting the U.S. economy. Yesterday's data showed wholesale sales dropping, and this is rattling investors," said Mirabaud Securities senior equity sales trader John Plassard in Geneva.

Data showed on Tuesday US wholesale sales falling 3.1 per cent, the largest drop since March 2009.

European stocks have been strongly outpacing Wall Street since the start of the year, with the FTSEurofirst 300 up 14 per cent in 2015, supported by strong investment inflows as the European Central Bank starts its quantitative easing programme, aiming to boost economic growth and push inflation higher.

Related Topics