Major U.S. stock indexes advanced in midday trading Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up three-tenths of one percent, while the broader S&P 500 index is ahead four-tenths of a percent. The NASDAQ is up three-quarters of a percent.

European stocks closed higher.

London's Financial Times index ended one percent higher at 5,227. The CAC 40 in Paris closed up 1.9 percent to end at 2,949. The DAX index in Frankfurt advanced 3.4 percent to finish at 5,340.

Earlier Wednesday, Tokyo's Nikkei index lost 1.1 percent to finish at 8,519. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained one-tenth of one percent to finish the day's trading at 19,045.

Gold is trading down $14.10 at $1,819.50 an ounce.

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