U.S. stock market indexes rose in Thursday's early trading, as progress on the Greek debt issue encouraged investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced one percent, the S&P 500 rose seven-tenths of a percent and the NASDAQ gained eight-tenths of a percent.

European stock markets were higher in afternoon trading. London's Financial Times 100 index gained one percent, the CAC-40 in Paris moved up eight-tenths of a percent, and the DAX in Frankfurt jumped six-tenths of a percent.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained two-tenths of a percent to finish at 9,816. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.5 percent to finish the day's trading at 23,398.

The price of gold fell more than $9 to trade at $1,502.83 an ounce.

The dollar was lower against the yen and the euro.