Stocks have risen on Wall Street as investors continue to bet they will see robust corporate earnings.
The Dow Jones Index up 42 points on Monday at 99 07. The Nasdaq Composite was up 8 points to 2147.
Trading was light due to the Columbus Day holday.
Earlier, in Europe, the FTSE in London was up 0.9%, the CAC-40 index in Paris was up 1.2% and the DAX in Frankfurt was up 1.3%.
The Nikkei in Japan was closed on Monday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index finished on 21,299 down 200 points
The Australian 200 Index ended down 13 points to 4740.
The NZX 50 was up 16 points to close at 3179 on tunover of $45 million.
At 8.30am on Tuesday,the New Zealand dollar was trading at 73.32 US cents, 80.89 Australian cents, 46.36 pence, 65.82 yen and 0.4957 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 66.12.
Brent crude oil rose to $US71.49 per barrel as cold weather across the United States boosted fuel demand. The rise was also due to optimism about the pace of global economic recovery.
Gold was trading at $US1056.40 per ounce.
