Stocks rose on Wall Street on Thursday as investors focused on stronger than expected sales by key retailers in August, offsetting weaker unemployment figures.
The Labor Department said the number of people filing for unemployment benefit in the United States, fell last week by 400 to 570,000.
The market had been expecting a bigger drop.
The Dow Jones Index was up 64 points to 9345. The Nasdaq Composite was up 16 points at 1983.
Earlier in Europe on Thursday, the FTSE 100 in London and the DAX in Frankfurt were both down 0.4%. The CAC-40 in Paris was down 0.6%.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei index was down 66 points to 10,215.
The Australian 200 Index was down 9 points, or 0.2%, to 4430.
The NZX 50 up 17 points, or 0.6%, to close at 3092 on turnover of $90 million.
At 8.20am on Friday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 67.71 US cents, 80.77 Australian cents, 41.45 pence, 62.71 yen and 0.4748 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 62.79.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US66.93 per barrel. Gold was trading at $US993.10 per ounce.
