Stocks have risen on Wall Street on solid earnings from Halliburton and stronger new orders for Boeing's planes.
But gains have been limited by a decline in homebuilder sentiment, and disappointing sales from Hasbro Delta Air Lines
The Dow Jones Index was up 57 points on Monday to close at 10,154. The Nasdaq Composite was up 19 points to 2,198.
Earlier in Europe, the FTSE 100 index in London was down 0.2%, the DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.5% and the CAC-40 in Paris was down 0.4%.
The stock market in Tokyo was closed for a public holiday. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was on 20,090, down 159 points.
Across the Tasman, the Australian 200 was down 64 points, or 1.5%, to 4358.
The NZX 50 was down 21 points, or 0.7%, to close at 2965 on turnover of $32 million.
At 8.25am on Tuesday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 70.62 US cents, 81.25 Australian cents, 46.34 pence, 61.45 yen and 0.5453 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 66.48.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US77.24 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1182.05 per ounce.
