Stocks on Wall Street rose on Wednesday after five days of sharp losses.
Sectors linked with economic growth led the way, as beaten-down prices made them attractive to bargain hunters.
The Dow Jones Index rose 89 points, or 0.7%, to close at 12,805.
The Nasdaq Composite gained 25 points, or 0.8%, to finish at 3016.
The FTSE 100 in London rose 0.7%, the DAX in Frankfurt gained 1% and the CAC-40 in Paris rose 0.6%.
The Australian 200 Index fell 46 points, or 1%, to close at 4246 on Wednesday and the NZX 50 fell 10 points to finish at 3465.
At 8.15am on Thursday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 81.72 US cents, 79.35 Australian cents, 51.38 pence, 66.13 yen and 0.6235 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 73.00.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US121.10 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1656.66 per ounce.
