Wall Street rose on Friday following news the European Central Bank was considering setting targets in a new bond-buying programme.
And in a letter to a Congressional panel, the US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed had room to deliver additional monetary stimulus to boost the US economy.
The Dow Jones Index rose 101 points, or 0.8%, to close at 13,158. The Nasdaq Composite was up 16 points, or 0.5%, to 3070.
The FTSE 100 index in London was up 0.01%, the DAX in Frankfurt was up 0.3% and the CAC-40 in Paris was up 0.02%
The Nikkei index in Tokyo was down 107 points to 9071.
The Australian 200 Index was down 35 points, or 0.8%, to 43 49 and the NZX 50 fell 40 points, or 1.1%, to close at 3623.
At 8.20am on Monday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 81.12 US cents, 78.02 Australian cents, 51.25 pence, 63.80 yen and 0.6491 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 72.96.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US116.51 US per barrel and gold was at $US1669.64 per ounce.
