U.S. stock market indexes rose in Thursday's midday trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.2 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent and the NASDAQ gained eight-tenths of a percent.

European stock markets were higher at the close of trading. London's Financial Times 100 index gained eight-tenths of a percent to end at 5,900, the CAC-40 in Paris moved up 1.7 percent to finish at 3,817, and the DAX in Frankfurt jumped one percent to hit 7,290.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained a fraction of a percent to finish at 10,010. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost a tenth of a percent to finish the day's trading at 21,987.

The price of gold fell more than $5 to trade at $1,594.93 an ounce.

The dollar was lower against the yen and the euro.