U.S. stock market indexes made gains in Wednesday's midday trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ all rose around one-tenth of a percent.

European stock markets were down at the close of trading. London's Financial Times 100 index lost less than one-tenth of a percent to finish at 5,773. The CAC 40 in Paris retreated two-tenths of a percent to end at 3,871 and the DAX in Frankfurt fell one-tenth of a percent to hit 7,278.

Earlier Wednesday in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained 1.8 percent to finish at 9,629. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained less than one-tenth of one percent to finish the day's trading at 21,860.

The price of gold rose nearly $9 to trade at $1,555.18 an ounce.

The dollar was lower against the yen and the euro.