KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket enjoyed a positive start to what will be a busy week for economists and market watchers.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index started at 2710.96 and rose 10.617 points, or 0.39 per cent, in the opening minutes of trading this morning.
Leading the way was Tourism Holdings, up 5c, or 7.14 per cent, from 70 to 75. Hellaby Holdings also rose 5c to 143.
Dual listed stock Westpac Banking $20.50 rose 55c to $21.05 and ANZ rose 40c to $17.55.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 3c to 310 and Contact Energy was up 4c to 679.
However, Telecom headed down, dropping 5c from 249 to 244 and AMP was also down 20c to 640.
At the end of last week shares in the US keeping up a broad winning streak with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 102.43 points or 1.17 per cent, to 8,829.04.
ANZ Economics and Markets Research said that with the US Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, Friday trading was always going to be thin.
Nevertheless, global stock markets managed to continue their positive run, with the US S&P 500 Index closing out its best week since 1980, although off very low levels.
There is some optimism that recently announced government measures and central bank moves would boost the US (and global) economy.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) will release its December Monetary Policy Statement on Thursday and is expected again to cut the OCR aggressively, with the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank of England and European Central Bank also due to announce interest rate decisions.
Given the deterioration in the global economy and a domestic economy that continues to struggle, ANZ expected the RBNZ to cut rates by 150bps.
The Australian stock market was also expected to open stronger today after Wall Street's rally at the end of last week.
CommSec senior analyst Craig James expects the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index to rise about 30 points on Monday.
A report on Saturday showed US consumers, lured by deep discounts, spent nearly three per cent more on Black Friday than they did last year.
- NZPA
