Stocks rose sharply on Wall St following a drop in Spain's borrowing costs and unexpectedly strong economic data from Germany, which eased euro zone debt worries.
The Dow Jones Index on Tuesday was up 316 points, or 2.7%, at 12,082.
The Nasdaq Composite was up 75 points, or 3%, to 2557.
The FTSE in London was down 1.1%, the DAX in Frankfurt was down 2.9% and the CAC-40 in Paris was down 2.6%.
The Nikkei Index in Tokyo was up 40 points to 8336.
The Australian 200 Index was down 7 points to 4053 and the NZX50 index fell 21 points to close at 3202.
At 6.45am on Wednesday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 76.86 US cents, 76.35 Australian cents, 49.06 pence, 59.83 yen and 0.5983 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 68.71.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US108.75 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1612.96 per ounce.
