U.S. stocks made strong gains in Tuesday's trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.6 percent to close at 11,577. The S&P 500 advanced 2 percent to end at 1,225 while the NASDAQ jumped 1.6 percent to hit 2,657.

European stock prices were mixed at the close of trading. London's Financial Times index lost a half-percent to close at 5,410. The CAC 40 in Paris slid eight-tenths of a percent to end at 3,141, while the DAX index in Frankfurt gained three-tenths of a percent to hit 5,877.

Earlier Tuesday, Tokyo's Nikkei index index lost 1.6 percent to finish at 8,742. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index plunged 4.2 percent to finish the day's trading at 18,076.

The price of gold fell more than $8 to trade at $1,662.76 an ounce.

The dollar is down against the yen and the euro.