European markets close lower, US gains after mixed opening

ANKARA

European stock markets closed lower on Wednesday, while the US' Dow and S&P turned positive after mixed opening.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, fell 3.74, or 0.8%, closing at 463.91.

London's FTSE 100 lost 17 points, or 0.25%, to 7,016, while Germany's DAX 30 fell 107 points, or 0.68%, to 15,616.

France's CAC 40 was down 69 points, or 1.04%, to end the day at 6,583 points. Italy's Borsa Italiana FTSE MIB 30 shed 265 points, or 1.02%, to close at 25,762.

Spain's IBEX 35 was the worst performer of the day after plummeting 1.65%, or 144 points, to 8,780.

Asian stock markets

Asian indices closed lower on Wednesday for the third day in a row, except India, following negative data from China.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost almost 40 points, or 1%, to close at nearly 3,981 points.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock exchange also fell 158 points, or 0.52%, to 30,511.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, posted a steep decline of 469 points, or 1.84%, to 25,033 -- the most among Asian indices.

China's Shanghai stock exchange lost 6.38 points, or 0.17% to 3,656 points, while Singapore fell 21.76 points, or 0.71%, to 3,058 points.

India's Sensex was the only index in Asia posting a daily gain by climbing 0.82%, or 476 points, to 58,723.

US indices

Major markets in the US opened mixed on Wednesday fluctuation between negative and positive territories early on, but they later rose.

The Dow Jones was up 154 points, or 0.44%, to 34,730 at 12.39 p.m. EDT (1639GMT), while the S&P 500 added 22 points, or 0.5%, to 4,465.

The Nasdaq increased 34 points, or 0.23%, to 15,072.

After a strong start to the day, VIX volatility index, also known as the fear index, reversed course by falling 3.3% to 18.82.

The dollar index dropped 0.1% to 92.54, but the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes rose 2.9% to 1.316%.

Precious metals were down with gold losing 0.7% to $1,792 per ounce, and silver shaving 0.5% to $23.73.

Oil prices jumped more than 2.5% for the day as Brent crude was trading at $75.39 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate was at $72.44.