Stocks on Wall Street rose on Tuesday as consumer confidence data and strong results from Travelers Co and Apple bolstered views the economy's recovery is on track.
The Dow Jones index was up 78 points to 10,274. The Nasdaq Composite rose 15 points to 2226.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index in London was up 0.3%, the CAC-40 in Paris was up 0.7% and the DAX in Frankfurt was up 0.7%.
Earlier, in Toyko, the Nikkei was down 187 points to 10,325.
The Australian 200 Index was closed for Australia Day.
The NZX 50 was up 20 points to close at 3209 on turnover of $33 million.
At 6.40am on Wednesday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 70.91 US cents, 78.74 Australian cents, 43.89 pence, 63.48 yen and 0.5027 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 64.71.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US73.14 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1098.90 per ounce.
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