The major U.S. stock market indexes were little changed in Wednesday's early trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped less than one-tenth of a percent. The S&P 500 index gained less than one-tenth of a percent. And the NASDAQ was unchanged.

European stock prices were higher in late afternoon trading.

London's Financial Times index rose almost 1 percent. The CAC-40 in Paris jumped 1.6 percent. And the DAX index in Frankfurt was up almost three-tenths of a percent.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained nearly 1.2 percent to finish at 10,006. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up nearly one-half of a percent to finish the day's trading at 22,004.

The price of gold fell almost $3 to trade at $1,585.64 an ounce.

The dollar lost value against the yen and the euro.