U.S. stocks were narrowly mixed in midday trading Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead by two-tenths of a percent, while the S&P was virtually unchanged from Thursday's close. The NASDAQ composite index slid two-tenths of one percent.

European stock indexes closed mixed.

London's Financial Times index ended down two-tenths of one percent to finish at 5,702. The CAC-40 in Paris slid six-tenths of one percent to close at 3,349. The DAX index in Frankfurt rose one-tenth of one percent to end at 6,346.

Tokyo's Nikkei index index gained 1.4 percent to finish at 9,050.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 1.7 percent to finish the day's trading at 20,019.

Gold is trading virtually unchanged at $1,745.87 an ounce.

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