Stocks have risen on Wall St after comments by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke that he will pump more money into the struggling US economy if needed.
Investors prefered that to Mr Bernanke's other comments on Wednesday that the Fed will also be prepared to raise interest rates if inflation became a threat.
In other news: JPMorgan reported positive earnings and weekly US jobless claims fell slightly.
The Dow Jones Index was up 45 points on Thursday to close at 12,492. The Nasdaq Composite was up 15 points at 2797.
In Europe: the FTSE 100 in London was down 1%, the DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.7% and the CAC-40 in Paris was down 1.1%.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei was down 27 points to 9936.
The Australian 200 Index was down 24 points at 4491. The NZX 50 down 15 points at 34 10
At 8.15am on Friday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 83.68 US cents, 78.85 Australian cents, 51.96 pence, 66.04 yen and 0.5910 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 72.17.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US118.30 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1588.00 per ounce.
