Wall St is closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving Day public holiday.
Sharemarkets in Europe rose for a fourth consecutive session in thin volume due to strong Chinese manufacturing data and results from SABMiller.
The FTSE 100 index in London rose 39 points, or 0.7%, to 5791. The DAX in Frankfurt rose 0.8% and the CAC-40 in Paris was up 0.6%.
The Nikkei index in Tokyo rose 144 points to 9,367.
The Australian 200 Index up 44 points, or 1%, to close at 44 13 and the NZX50 index rose 25 points to close at 39 97.
At 8.30am on Friday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 81.51 US cents, 78.56 Australian cents, 51.13 pence, 67.13 yen and 0.6329 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 73.21.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US111.17 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1730.39 per ounce.
