Wall Street had a mixed session on Monday amid light trading. Investors are waiting to hear from US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke about potential stimulus plans later this weekm while Apple's shares rose
The Dow Jones Index fell 33 points, or 0.3%, to close at 13,125. The Nasdaq Composite up 3 points, or 0.1%, to 3073.
In Europe: the FTSE 100 index in London was up 0.01%, the DAX in Frankfurt was up 0.3% and the CAC-40 in Paris was up 0.02%.
The Nikkei index in Tokyo was up 14 points to 9085.
The Australian 200 Index was down 5 points, or 0.1%, to 4344 and the NZX 50 remained steady at 3623.
At 8.30am on Tuesday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 80.87 US cents, 77.97 Australian cents, 51.19 pence, 63.69 yen and 0.6470 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 72.73.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US114.58 per barrel and gold was at $US1669.60 per ounce.
