U.S. stock indexes advanced strongly on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained half a percent to close at 11,614. The S&P 500 also rose half a percent to end at 1,219 while the NASDAQ advanced one-tenth of a percent to hit 2,579.

Stocks closed sharply higher in Europe.

London's Financial Times index ended up 2.4 percent to finish at 5,395. The CAC 40 in Paris advanced 3.1 percent to end at 3,257. The DAX index in Frankfurt closed up 2.5 percent to end at 5,785.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index was virtually unchanged to finish at 8,955. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.6 percent to finish the day's trading at 20,535.

The price of gold fell more than $10 to trade at $1,825.18 an ounce.

The dollar is down against the yen, but gained value compared to the euro.