Profits at some top U.S. companies and an increase in new home construction helped push the major U.S. stock indexes higher in midday trading Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained nine-tenths of a percent. The S&P 500 index jumped eight-tenths of a percent. And the NASDAQ advanced about 1.5 percent.

European stock prices closed higher. London's Financial Times index rose almost seven-tenths of a percent to end at 5,790. The CAC-40 in Paris advanced 1.2 percent to finish at 3,695. And the DAX index in Frankfurt jumped almost 1.2 percent to close at 7,193.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index lost nine-tenths of one percent to finish at 9,890. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained nearly half a percent to finish the day's trading at 21,902.

The price of gold fell more than $3 to trade at $1,601.50 an ounce.

The dollar traded lower against the yen and the euro.