U.S. stock market indexes were down slightly in Wednesday's early trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down a fraction, the S&P 500 dropped one-quarter of one percent and the NASDAQ was down nearly one-tenth of a percent.

European stock markets were also lower in afternoon trading.

London's Financial Times index was down nearly three-quarters of one percent. The CAC-40 in Paris is down one-half of one percent, and trading on the DAX index in Frankfurt is down one-quarter of one percent.

Earlier Wednesday in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained more than one percent to finish at 10,082. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost just over one percent to finish the day's trading at 22,518.

Gold was trading at $1,510.83 an ounce.

The dollar was lower against other major currencies.