U.S. stock market indexes made gains in Friday's midday trading. The Dow advanced seven-tenths of a percent while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ rose half a percent.

European stock prices were mixed by the close of Friday's trading. London's Financial Times index rose six-tenths of a percent to end at 5,368. The CAC-40 in Paris lost half a percent to close at 3,032, and the DAX index in Frankfurt jumped 1.2 percent to hit 5,574.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index rose 2.3 percent to finish at 8,864. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index soared 1.4 percent to finish the day's trading at 19,455.

The price of gold rose more than $28 to trade at $1,816.90 an ounce.

The dollar is higher against the yen and the euro.