Stocks rose on Wall St on Monday on optimism that euro zone officials will develop plans to slash Greece's debts and recapitalize European banks in the latest effort to tackle the region's debt crisis.
But European officials say reports that plans are already in place for a 50 percent writedown in Greek debt and a vast increase in the euro zone rescue fund of 440 billion euros are highly premature.
The Dow Jones Index rose 221 points, or 2%, to 10,992. The Nasdaq Composite was up 12 points, or 0.4%, to 2444.
In Europe: FTSE 100 in London rose 0.5%, the CAC-40 in Paris was up 1.8% and the DAX in Frankfurt rose 2.9%.
The Nikkei in Tokyo fell 186 points to 8374.
The Australian 200 Index fell 39 points, or 1%, to 3864. The NZX 50 fell 27 points, or 0.8%, to close at 3255.
At 8.25am on Tuesday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at 77.76 US cents, 79.44 Australian cents, 50.04 pence, 59.44 yen and 0.5760 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 69.18.
Brent crude oil was trading at $US110.42 per barrel and gold was trading at $US1597.09 per ounce.