"We had 61 points on Thursday and another 50 today. It is a lovely environment to be in. It's an incredible feeling," Forsyth Barr broker Peter Young said yesterday.
Some people were classing the rally as a bull market as the NZX bounced off its lows, but Mr Young was a bit more circumspect.
Two days and a 110-point gain was a good rally, but the markets were unlikely to be at the end of the current volatile period, he said.
Investors were reading research and deciding they could take another look at a few stocks.
Contact, Fletcher Building, Telecom and Air New Zealand were all moving up well, Mr Young said.
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa yesterday said the central bank needed to closely watch the impact of stock-price falls and a worsening economy on the stability of the country's financial system.
"Japan's economy is expected to continue deteriorating for the time being," Mr Shirakawa said in a speech to a meeting of the central bank's regional branch managers.
The BOJ has cut interest rates twice since October to cushion the economy from the shock of the global financial crisis.
With rates already near zero, it has also decided to buy corporate debt and expand its purchases of government bonds to ease credit strains hurting an economy in its worst recession since World War 2.
The central bank's policy board next meets on April 30, the same day as New Zealand's Reserve Bank is expected to cut its official cash rate by 0.5% to 2.5%.
Wall Street hesitated, then rallied, lifted by better-than-expected profits from JPMorgan Chase and a drop in new US unemployment claims that fuelled hopes for an economic rebound.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 94.46 points (1.18%) to 8124.08 at the closing bell in a choppy session that saw swings between positive and negative territory.
The Nasdaq composite vaulted 43.64 points (2.68%) to 1670.44 while the Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index rose 12.92 points (1.52%) to a preliminary close of 864.98.
Market action came after US banking giant JPMorgan Chase announced a net profit of $US2.1 billion in the first quarter of 2009.
The figure was slightly down from 2008 figures for the corresponding period, but better than most market analysts had predicted, and suggested a potential recovery in the troubled banking sector.
"These numbers are very impressive in today's economy," said Jon Ogg, an analyst at 24/7 Wall Street.
Meanwhile, the Labour Department said new US jobless claims fell by 8% to 610,000 in the past week, a third consecutive drop, suggesting lowered pressure on a weak labour market.
Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com said the report on jobless claims was positive since a slowdown in layoffs was the first step in restoring the view that job security for existing workers was improving.
