Stocks edged up on Wall St on Thursday due to stronger earnings from technology and consumer stocks, though US economic growth slowed to an annualised rate of 1.8% in the first three months of 2011.
Shares of Microsoft jumped after a prominent investor said its chief executive should resign.
The Dow Jones index was up 8 points to 12,403. The Nasdaq Composite was up 22 points to 2783.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.2%, the DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.8% and the CAC-40 in Paris was down 0.3%.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei was up 139 points to 9562.
Across the Tasman, the Australian 200 Index was up 76 points to 4660 on Thursday. The NZX 50 fell 27 points to close at 3528.
At 8.16am on Friday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 81.18 US cents, 76.31 Australian cents, 49.53 pence, 65.96 yen and 0.5741 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 70.41.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US116.26 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1520.84 per ounce.
