U.S. stocks were narrowly mixed in Tuesday morning trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ composite index are both down a tenth of one percent, while the S&P 500 is up a tenth of a percent.

European stock prices were lower in afternoon trading.

London's Financial Times index is off nine-tenths of a percent. The CAC-40 in Paris is down 1.3 percent, and the DAX index in Frankfurt is off fractionally from Monday's close.

Tokyo's Nikkei index index lost 1.6 percent to finish at 8,742. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index plunged nearly four and one-quarter percent to finish the day's trading at 18,076.

The price of gold fell $32.20 to trade at $1,638.60 an ounce.

The dollar is down against the yen but up against the euro.