Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

A change of view over Europe's heavy debts gave stocks in the United States a cheerier performance on Wall Street on Tuesday.

Worries over the high borrowings of a number of European countries - notably Greece - have been overhanging the mood in recent days.

The Dow Jones Index was up 170 points, or 1.7%, to 10,179 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 26 points, or 1.24%, to 2153.

The FTSE in London was up 26 points to 5118, the DAX in Frankfurt was up 34 points to 5118 and the CAC-40 was up 17 points to 3624.

The Australian 200 Index closed down 16 points, or 0.4%, to 4505.

The NZX 50 closed down 17 points, or 0.55%, to 3076.

At 8.30am on Wednesday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 69.3 US cents, 79.06 Australian cents, 44.15 pence, 62.13 yen and 0.5031 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 64.17.

Brent crude oil was trading at $US70.84 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1080.25 per ounce.