U.S. stock market indexes fell in Wednesday's early trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved down nearly eight-tenths of one percent, while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ each lost around seven-tenths of one percent.

European stock prices were lower in afternoon trading. London's Financial Times index was down eight-tenths of one percent. The CAC-40 in Paris slipped more than 1.5 percent, and the DAX index in Frankfurt was down 1.4 percent.

Earlier Wednesday in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained three-tenths of a percent to finish at 9,574. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost seven-tenths of one percent to finish the day's trading at 22,344.

The price of gold rose $7.91 to trade at $1,531.89 an ounce.

The dollar was trading higher against the yen and lower against the euro.