Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Wednesday.
Comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan that the US economic growth outlook was solid, inflation was contained and interest rates would keep rising was largely as expected, but disappointed some investors who had hoped an end to monetary tightening might be in sight.
A US warning that militants were planning fresh attacks in Saudi Arabia briefly pushed up crude oil prices and weighed on the oil and gas sector, which was already weak following the soft debut of the newly merged shares of Royal Dutch Shell.