U.S. stock market indexes made gains as Thursday's trading got underway. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose three-tenths of a percent, the S & P 500 advanced five-tenths, and the NASDAQ gained one-tenth of a percent.
European stock markets were mixed in afternoon trading. London's Financial Times 100 index fell half a percent, the CAC-40 in Paris gained a bit more than 1 percent, while the DAX in Frankfurt rose nine-tenths of a percent.
In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index plunged 5.3 percent (457 points) to close at 8,239. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell more than 5 percent (718 points) to end at 13,221.
The price of gold rose just over $5 to trade at $717.34 an ounce.
The dollar was higher against the yen but lost value compared to the euro.
Some information for this report was provided by Bloomberg.