U.S. stock indexes advanced in early trading Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 1.1 percent, the S&P 500 1.3 percent and the NASDAQ by 1.4 percent.

European stocks jumped sharply in afternoon trading.

London's Financial Times index is up 2.4 percent. The CAC-40 in Paris is ahead 2.9 percent, and the DAX index in Frankfurt is up 3.7 percent.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained 2 percent to finish at 8,763.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.7 percent to finish the day's trading at 20,048.

Gold has plunged $64.08 to trade at $1,811.32 an ounce.

The dollar is trading lower against both the euro and yen.