The major U.S. stock indexes fell in Thursday's midday trading after the head of the U.S. central bank testified in Washington. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers the bank does not have any plan to inject more stimulus into the economy in the near future.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid two-tenths of a percent. The S&P 500 index fell four-tenths of a percent. And the NASDAQ lost more than eight-tenths of a percent.

European stock prices closed lower. London's Financial Times index dropped 1 percent to finish at 5,847. The CAC-40 in Paris fell 1.1 percent to end at 3,751. And the DAX index in Frankfurt slipped seven-tenths of a percent to close at 7,215.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index lost nearly three-tenths of one percent to finish at 9,936. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained nearly one-tenth of one percent to finish the day's trading at 21,940.

The price of gold gained almost $5 to trade at $1,586.98 an ounce.

The dollar traded higher against the yen and the euro.