Stocks fell on Wall Street on Wednesday after investors expressed disappointment that the US Federal Reserve offered no new measures to stimulate the economy.
Earlier in the session, the New York Stock Exchange halted trading because of irregular price swings in some stocks. Some trades were canceled.
The Dow Jones Index declined 32 points, or 0.3%, to 12,977.
The Nasdaq Composite was down 19 points, or 0.7%, at 2920.
The FTSE 100 index in London rose 1.4%, the DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.3% and the CAC-40 in Paris was up 0.9%.
The Nikkei index in Tokyo was down 53 points to 86 42.
The Australian 200 Index was down 6 points, or 0.2%, to 4263.
The NZX 50 fell 14 points, or 0.4%, to close at 3530.
At 8.30am on Thursday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 80.74 US cents, 77.20 Australian cents, 51.94 pence, 63.30 yen and 0.6602 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 72.93.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US107.53 per barrel and gold iwas at $US1600.36 per ounce.
