U.S. stock market indexes rose in Thursday's early trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 moved up one-tenth of a percent while the NASDAQ gained two-tenths of a percent.

European stock markets were lower in afternoon trading. London's Financial Times 100 index lost eight-tenths of a percent, the CAC 40 in Paris moved down 1.3 percent, and the DAX in Frankfurt slid 1.1 percent.

Earlier Thursday in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index dropped 1.7 percent to finish at 9,555. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 1.6 percent to end the day's trading at 23,254.

The price of gold fell 14 cents to trade at $1,539.69 an ounce.

The dollar was lower against the yen and the euro.