U.S. stocks were mixed in Wednesday's midday trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose a third of a percent, the S&P 500 index is unchanged while the NASDAQ is off half a percent.

In Europe, stocks made gains by the close of trading. London's Financial Times index advanced seven-tenths of a percent to finish at 5,450. The CAC-40 in Paris moved up half a percent to end at 3,157 while the DAX index in Frankfurt rose six-tenths of a percent to hit 5,914.

Tokyo's Nikkei index gained nearly four-tenths of a percent to finish at 8,773. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.3 percent to finish the day's trading at 18,309.

The price of gold fell more than $8 to trade at $1,649.15 an ounce.

The dollar is down against the yen but gained value compared to the euro.