U.S. stock market indexes tumbled in Wednesday's trading as investors reacted to surging oil prices, which hit another record high. The price of crude oil rose nearly $2 to settle at $123.57 cents a barrel

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.6 percent (206 points) to close at 12,814. The S&P 500 dropped 1.8 percent (26 points) to end at 1,393. And the NASDAQ lost 1.8 percent (45 points) to close at 2,438.

European stock markets closed higher. London's Financial Times 100 index gained more than 0.7 percent (46 points) to end at 6,261. The CAC 40 in Paris rose almost 0.7 percent (34 points) to close at 5,075 and the DAX in Frankfurt jumped more than 0.6 percent (59 points) to close at 7,076.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei Index rose nearly 0.4 percent (53 points) to finish at 14,102. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index plunged nearly 2.5 percent (652 points) to end the day's trading at 25,610.

Gold fell more than $7 to trade at $869.13 an ounce.

The U.S. dollar was down against the yen and up against the euro.

Some information for this report was provided by Bloomberg.