There were modest rises on Wall Street on Wednesday, as weak economic data and profit-taking kept buyers on the sidelines after a recent run-up.
The Dow Jones Index closed up 46 points at 10,573. The Nasdaq Composite rose 12 points to finish at 2301.
Earlier in Europe: the FTSE 100 in London closed down 0.2% at 5556, ending a five session winning streak.
The DAX in Frankfurt ended down 0.2% at 6261 and the CAC-40 in Paris lost 0.5% to finish at 3756.
Across the Tasman, the Australian 200 Index closed up 35 points at 4662.
The NZX 50 shed 2 points to close at 3195 on turnover of $50 million on Wednesday.
At 8.20am on Thursday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 73.15 US cents, 78.02 Australian cents, 46.86 pence, 62.71 yen and 0.5626 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 67.47.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US79.10 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1267.25 per ounce.
