Stocks in the United States advanced on Thursday for the first time in three days as earnings from Travelers Companies, AT&T and McDonald's boosted speculation that the worst recession since the 1930s is over.
The Dow Jones Index was up 1.27%, or 154 points, to 10,103. The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.5%, or 11 points to 2168.
Earlier, European markets were down. The FTSE 100 index in London plunged to 5207, the CAC-40 in Paris slid 52 points to 3820 and the DAX in Frankfurt was down 70 to 5762.
The Australian 200 Index closed down 0.5% to 4812.
The NZX 50 was also down 0.5% on Thursday, closing at 3201 on turnover of $79 million.
At 8.20am on Friday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 75.9 US cents, 81.85 Australian cents, 45.64 pence, 69.23 yen and 0.5048 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 67.73.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US78.55 per barrel. Gold was trading at $US1057.25 per ounce.
