U.S. stocks made strong gains by the close of Wednesday's trading, recovering from sharp losses earlier.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 2.5 percent - 299 points - to end at 12,270. The S&P 500 moved up 2.1 percent (28 points) to finish at 1,339 and the NASDAQ advanced one percent (24 points) to reach 2,316.
European stock markets were down at the close of trading. London's Financial Times index was off a bit more than two percent (131 points) to end the day at 5,609. The CAC-40 in Paris fell more than four percent (206 points) to finish at 4,637, while the DAX index in Frankfurt dropped nearly five percent (330 points) to hit 6,439.
Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained more than two percent (256 points) to close at 12,829. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rebounded nearly 11 percent (2,333 points) to finish at 24,090.
The price of gold was down nearly $4, trading at $888.53 an ounce.
The dollar was up against the yen but lost value compared to the euro.
Some information for this report was provided by Bloomberg.
