Stocks on Wall Street have fallen on Tuesday due to concerns over Spain and Greece, and disappointing profit forecasts from United Parcel Service and AT&T.
The Dow Jones Index was down 104 points, or 0.8%, to close at 12,617.
The Nasdaq Composite was down 27 points, or 0.9%, to close at 2863.
In Europe, FTSE 100 index in London was fell 0.6%, the DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.5% and the CAC-40 in Paris was down 0.9%.
The Nikkei index in Tokyo fell 20 points to 8488.
The Australian 200 Index was up 4 points, or 0.1%, to 4133 and the NZX 50 fell 4 points to close at 3461.
At 8.30am on Wednesday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 78.63 US cents, 76.76 Australian cents, 50.66 pence, 61.45 yen and 0.6511 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 71.57.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US104.33 per barrel and gold was at $US1576.26 per ounce.
