Stocks on Wall Street have risen as favorable comments from Goldman Sachs lifted the industrial sector. Rising crude prices boosted energy stocks.
The Nasdaq rose, helped by a rise in Apple's share price on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve says 11 of the 12 regional banks in the United States reported signs of a stable or improving economy in July and August - indicating the worst of the recession is over.
The Dow Jones index was up 50 points to close at 9547. The Nasdaq composite was up 23 points at 2060.
In London, the FTSE 100 broke through the 5000 mark for the first time in almost a year, rising 1.2%, the DAX in Frankfurt was up 1.7% and the CAC-40 in Paris was up 1.3%.
Earlier, in Tokyo, the Nikkei index was down 81 points to 10,312.
The Australian 200 Index was down 2 points, or 0.04%, to 4522.
The NZX 50 was down 5 points, or 0.2%, to close at 3116 on turnover of $60 million.
At 6.30am on Thursday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 69.52 US cents, 80.77 Australian cents, 42.04 pence, 64.01 yen and 0.4779 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 63.67.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US69.81 per barrel. Gold was trading at $US988.65 per ounce.
