Stocks in the United States fluctuated on Thursday, but are currently up.
A rally in commodity shares and faster-than-estimated growth in a gauge of manufacturing offset disappointing sales at Wal-Mart stores and an unexpected increase in jobless claims.
The Dow Jones Index was up 17 points, or 0.7%, to 10,327 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 2 points, or 0.07%, to 2227.
Earlier in Europe: the FTSE in London was up 39 points, or 0.74%, to 5316, the DAX in Frankfurt was up 33 points, or 0.6%, to 5681 and the CAC-40 in Paris was up 19 points, or 0.5%, to 3744.
The Australian 200 Index closed down 13 points, or 0.3%, to 4655.
The NZX 50 also fell, closing down 9 points, or 0.3%, to 3102 on turnover of $71 million.
At 6.30am on Friday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 70.17 US cents, 78.24 Australian cents, 45.09 pence, 64.09 yen and 0.5172 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 65.17.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US77.02 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1115.30 cents per ounce.
