Stocks on Wall St have risen due to fewer unemployment claims in the United States.
After falling on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Index closed up 112 points at 11,893 on Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite was up 3.5 points at 2625.
In Europe: the FTSE 100 in London was down 0.5%, the CAC-40 was down 0.4% and the DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.6%.
The Nikkei Index in Tokyo fell 255 points to 8501. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended down 1051 points at 18,963.
The Australian 200 Index was down 102 points, or 2.4%, to 4244. The NZX 50 was down 35 points, or 1%, to close at 3319.
At 7am on Friday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 77.68 US cents, 76.57 Australian cents, 48.73 pence, 60.23 yen and 0.5704 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 68.42.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US113.81 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1751.70 per ounce.
