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

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.5 percent to close at 11,897. The S&P 500 fell 1.7 percent to end at 1,265 and the NASDAQ lost 1.8 percent to hit 2,631.

European stock prices were sharply lower at the close of trading. London's Financial Times index lost one percent to end at 5,743. The CAC-40 in Paris slipped 1.5 percent to finish at 3,807 and the DAX index in Frankfurt fell 1.3 percent to hit 7,115.

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 a percent to finish the day's trading at 22,344.

The price of gold rose more than $7 to trade at $1,531.28 an ounce.

The dollar rose against the yen and the euro.