Stocks on Wall St recovered from initial declines in a choppy session on Thursday, as commodity prices kept the market in flux. A downgrade of Goldman Sachs dragged down financial shares.
The Dow Jones Index was up 58 points, or 0.5%, to 12,689.
The Nasdaq Composite was up 13 points, or 0.5%, to 2858.
The FTSE 100, which is heavily weighted towards commodity stocks, closed down 31 points or 0.5%at 5944. The DAX in Frankfurt shed 0.7% and the CAC-40 in Paris fell 0.9%.
Across the Tasman, the Australian 200 Index fell 84 points, or 1.8% on Thursday, to 4696. The NZX 50 fell 19 points, or 0.5, to 3540.
The New Zealand dollar was trading at 79.62 US cents, 74.68 Australian cents, 48.89 pence, 64.45 yen and 0.5592 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 68.88.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US114.07 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1505.59 per ounce.