U.S. stock market indexes were narrowly mixed in midday trading Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were both down a bit more than a tenth of one percent, while the NASDAQ was up fractionally from Wednesday's close.

European stocks ended the day higher.

London's Financial Times 100 index and the CAC 40 in Paris both gained four-tenths of a percent. The London exchange was up 22 points to finish at 5,340, while the Paris market advanced 13 points to close at 3,086. The DAX in Frankfurt ended slightly higher at 5,408.

Earlier Thursday in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained three-tenths of a percent to finish at 8,793. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell seven-tenths of a percent to finish the day's trading at 19,913.

The price of gold rose $39.72 to trade at $1,857.20 an ounce.

The dollar was higher against the yen and the euro.