Stocks have risen on Wall Street after comments by the chairman of the US Federal Reserve raised hopes for further stimulus of the US economy.
Investors prefered that to Ben Bernanke's other comments that the Fed will also be prepared to raise interest rates if inflation became a threat.
A previous stimulus effort, known as QE2, led the Fed to print money to buy $US600 billion in bonds
The Dow Jones Index was up 45 points to 12,492 on Wednesday. The Nasdaq Composite was up 15 points at 2797.
In Europe: the FTSE 100 in London was up 0.6%, the DAX in Frankfurt was up 1.3% and the CAC-40 in paris was up 0.5%.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei was up 37 points to 9,963.
The Australian 200 Index was up 19 points at 4515. The NZX 50 was down 6 points at 3424.
At 8.15am on Thursday, the New Zealand was trading at 83.68 US cents, 77.85 Australian cents, 51.96 pence, 66.04 yen and 0.5910 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 72.17.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US120.18 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1578.19 per ounce.