U.S. stock market indexes fell sharply in Monday's midday trading after a report on U.S. manufacturing apparently disappointed investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off eight-tenths of a percent, the S&P 500 lost 1 percent and the NASDAQ slid 1.2 percent.

European stock markets fell sharply by the close of trading. London's Financial Times 100 index lost seven-tenths of a percent to hit 5,774. The CAC-40 in Paris moved down 2.3 percent to end at 3,588, while the DAX in Frankfurt lost 2.9 percent to reach 6,954.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index jumped 1.3 percent to close at 9,965. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 1 percent to end at 22,663.

The price of gold edged up less than $1 to trade at $1,627.28 an ounce.

The dollar was higher against the yen and the euro.