Investors on Wall St are concerned an emergency loan package won't be enough for Greece to avoid defaulting on its debt, offsetting strong gains by Apple and Morgan Stanley.
However, the Dow Jones Index on Wednesday ended up 36 points at 11,128.
The Nasdaq Composite was up 19 points at 2499.
Earlier, the FTSE 100 index in London was down 1%, the DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.6% and the CAC-40 in Paris was down 1.2%.
The Australian 200 Index was up 29 points to 4954.
The NZX 50 index was up 12 points to 3305 on turnover of $100 million.
At 8.20am on Thursday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 71.10 US cents, 76.35 Australian cents, 46.25 pence, 66.24 yen and 0.5290 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 65.91.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US84.50 per barrel, as rising US inventories indicated weaker demand in the United States. Gold was trading at $US1145.45 per ounce.
