U.S. stocks were mixed at closing Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell three-tenths of one percent to close at 12,249.

The S&P 500 was down one-tenth of one percent to finish at 1,313. The Nasdaq composite index rose two-tenths of a percent to end at 2,773.

European stock markets were lower at the close of trading. London's Financial Times 100 index lost 1.4 percent to end at 5,848. The CAC 40 index in Paris moved down 1.9 percent to finish at 3,890, and the DAX index in Frankfurt slid 2 percent to close at 7,074.

Earlier Thursday in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index dropped 1.7 percent to finish at 9,555. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 1.6 percent to end the day's trading at 23,254.

The price of gold closed at $1,532 per ounce, down from $1,542.40 on Wednesday.

The dollar was lower against the yen and the euro.