Stocks on Wall Street fluctuated around break-even on Wednesday, as investors waited for Greece to accept tough reforms in exchange for a new bailout.
Coalition parties were given a draft austerity agreement after final touches were agreed between Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and officials from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The accord is likely to include a 20% minimum wage reduction, pension cuts and 15,000 civil service lay-offs.
But underlying confidence kept the Dow Jones Index almost as high as on Tuesday when it closed at its highest for almost four years.
The Dow was down 14 points at 12,864 on Wednesday and the Nasdaq Composite was up 3 points at 2907.
The FTSE 100 in London fell 0.3%, the DAX in Frankfurt fell 0.1% and the CAC-40 in Paris was flat.
The Australian 200 Index rose 17 points, or 0.4%, to close at 4291. The NZX 50 rose 10 points to finish at 3325.
At 8.12am on Thursday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 83.40 US cents, 77.35 Australian cents, 52.73 pence, 64.25 yen and 0.6293 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 72.99.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US117.26 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1734 per ounce.
