The major U.S. stock market indexes jumped higher in early trading Tuesday after several prominent companies announced profits for the April through June period and a government report showed home construction increased last month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index both advanced nine-tenths of a percent, while the NASDAQ gained 1.5 percent.

European stock prices were also higher in afternoon trading.

London's Financial Times index gained six-tenths of a percent. The CAC-40 in Paris rose 1.2 percent. And the DAX index in Frankfurt jumped almost 1.2 percent.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index lost nine-tenths of one percent to finish at 9,890. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained nearly half a percent to finish the day's trading at 21,902.

The price of gold fell almost $5 to trade at $1,599.92 an ounce.

The dollar traded lower against the yen and the euro.