U.S. stock market indexes were higher at the close of Wednesday's trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose four-tenths of a percent to end at 12,492. The S&P 500 jumped three-tenths of a percent to end at 1,318, while the NASDAQ gained half a percent to end at 2,797.

European stock markets closed higher. London's Financial Times 100 gained six-tenths of a percent to end at 5,906. The CAC-40 in Paris advanced half a percent to finish at 3,793. And the DAX in Frankfurt jumped 1.3 percent to close at 7,268.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained four-tenths of a percent to finish at 9,963. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 1.2 percent to finish the day's trading at 21,927.

The price of gold jumped more than $13 to trade at $1,581.33 an ounce.

The dollar was lower against the yen and the euro.