U.S. stock market indexes rose strongly in Tuesday's midday trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced nine-tenths of a percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent and the NASDAQ gained 1.9 percent.

European stock markets were higher at the close of trading. London's Financial Times 100 index gained 1.4 percent to close at 5,775. The CAC 40 in Paris moved up 2 percent to end at 3,877 and the DAX in Frankfurt jumped 1.9 percent to finish at 7,286.

Earlier Tuesday in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained 1.1 percent to finish at 9,460. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index also rose nearly 1.2 percent to finish the day's trading at 21,851.

The price of gold rose nearly $4 to trade at $1,544.50 an ounce.

The dollar was lower against the yen and the euro.