Wall St stocks have risen for a fourth day as coordinated central bank action calmed fears that Europe's financial sector was headed for a credit freeze due to the region's sovereign debt crisis.
The Dow Jones Index rose 186 points, or 1.6%, to 11,433 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 35 points, or 1.3%, to 2607
The Dow is up 3.3% in the past four days and the Nasdaq is up 4.9%.
FTSE 100 in London rose 2.1%, extending its rally into a third consecutive day.
The CAC-40 in Paris and the DAX in Frankfurt both rose more than 3%.
The Nikkei in Tokyo added 147 to reach 8,666 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong closed up 136 points at 19,181.
The Australian 200 Index rose 66 points, or 1.7%, to close at 4072. The NZX 50 rose 8 points, or 0.3%, at 3272.
At 8.13am on Friday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 82.38 US cents, 79.85 Australian cents, 52.11 pence, 63.15 yen and 0.5930 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 71.80.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US118.48 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1776.49 per ounce.
