Stocks on Wall Street edged up on Monday as investors believe Ben Bernanke will be reconfirmed as chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones index was up 62 points to 10,237. The Nasdaq Composite rose 9 points to 2214.
In Europe: the FTSE 100 index in London fell 0.6%, the CAC-40 in Paris was down 0.8% and the DAX in Frankfurt was down 1%.
Earlier, in Toyko, the Nikkei was down 78 points at 10,513.
The Australian 200 Index was down 33 points to 4718
The NZX 50 fell 2 points to close at 3189 on turnover of $25 million.
At 6.40am on Tuesday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 71.40 US cents, 79.03 Australian cents, 44.00 pence, 64.41 yen and 0.5044 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 64.92.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US72.63 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1095.90 per ounce.
