Gains for technology and energy stocks helped to offset losses among healthcare shares on Wall Street last night, in what was another volatile trading session.

The Australian market was buoyed by the news with the S&P ASX 200 index rising 19.4 points to 4995.6 points.

Crude oil prices held steady near $US34 a barrel and that offered solid support to the energy sector.

Earlier, oil had jumped as much as 6 per cent, on speculation that Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries would cut output to help boost prices.

Facebook shares surged more than 10 per cent, after the social media giant reported a 52 per cent jump in revenue.

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Amazon, which was due to report its earnings after Thursday’s trading session, was also making gains.

However, online auction site eBay slumped 13.5 per cent, after forecasting weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.8 per cent higher at 16,069.

The S&P 500 added 0.6 per cent to 1,893 and the Nasdaq gained 0.9 per cent to 4,506.

In Europe there were some disappointing earnings for healthcare firms and share price falls for eurozone banks.

London’s FTSE 100 closed 1 per cent lower at 5,931.

The Australian share market is expected to follow Wall Street higher and, at 8:30am (AEDT), the ASX SPI 200 was up 0.3 per cent to 4,939.

At the same time, the Australian dollar was worth 70.81 US cents, having strengthened overnight.

On the cross-rates, it was quoted at 64.72 euro cents, 49.31 British pence, 84.14 Japanese yen and $NZ1.093.

West Texas crude oil had risen to $US33.16 a barrel, a barrel of Tapis was fetching $US35.70 and spot gold had eased to $US1,113.92 an ounce.