U.S. stocks declined in Thursday's early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 dropped one-tenth of a percent while the NASDAQ moved down nearly four-tenths of a percent.

European stock prices declined in Thursday's afternoon trading. London's Financial Times index slid about eight-tenths of a percent, the CAC-40 in Paris was off 1.1 percent while the DAX index in Frankfurt dropped 1.6 percent.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index lost one percent to finish at 8,682. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.8 percent to finish the day's trading at 17,983.

The price of gold is down more than $22 to trade at $1,618.40 an ounce.

The dollar is up against the yen, but lost value compared to the euro.