The US Federal Reserve has announced it will keep rates on hold at near zero, after giving a lukewarm assessment of the economy.
Stocks on Wall Street rallied on Wednesday, as investors snapped up commodity and tech shares. They were also encouraged by a call by President Barack Obama for a lower company tax rate in his state of the union speech.
The Dow Jones index broke the 12,000 threshold for the first time in more than three years, bolstered by strong performances from DuPont, Home Depot and Microsoft, and expectations that the Fed would keep interest rates on hold.
Despite recent signs that the recovery is strengthening, the fed says the high unemployment rate - almost 10% - still justifies the pumping of more than $US600 billion into the economy through its quantitative easing programme.
The bank says rates will likely stay at very low levels for an extended period. US rates have been at almost zero since December 2008.
The Dow Jones index was up 27 points at 12005. The Nasdaq Composite was up 22 points, at 2747.
The FTSE 100 index in London closed up 80 points, or 1.35%, at 5997.
The Australian 200 Index was closed on Wednesday for Australia Day. The NZX50 lost 4 points, to 3354.
At 8.16am on Thursday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 76.72 US cents, 77.10 Australian cents, 48.33 pence, 63.30 yen and 0.5615 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 68.41.
Gold was trading at $US1325.25 cents per ounce.
