Stocks on Wall St climbed on Thursday, after better-than-expected economic data and mounting optimism that Greece's bailout deal will be agreed next week.
The Dow Jones Index was up 117 points, or 0.9%, at 12,898. The Nasdaq Composite is up 39 points, or 1.3%, at 2955.
In Europe: the FTSE 100 in London fell 0.1%, the DAX in Frankfurt fell 0.2% and the CAC-40 9n Frankfurt was flat.
Earlier, the Australian 200 Index fell 72 points, or 1.7%, to 4182. The NZX 50 fell 7 points to 3286.
At 8.30am on Friday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 83.22 US cents, 77.37 Australian cents, 52.72 pence, 65.63 yen and 0.6365 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 73.36.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US122.62 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1723 per ounce.
