NZ sharemarket slips early

File photo / Paul Estcourt

The New Zealand sharemarket slipped in early trading after stocks in the United States dropped stocks through a key technical level.

Fletcher Building lost 5c early to $8.57, Freightways was down 3c to $2.97, Cavalier Corp lost 2c to $3.17, and NZX eased 2c to $1.58.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained 2c to $3.04, Telecom was unchanged on $2.03 and Contact Energy down 1c to $5.72.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 2.89 points to 3225.14, having closed down 8.3 points yesterday.

Postie Plus Group was not traded early at 32c, after the apparel and nursery equipment retailer posted a 6.5 per cent fall in annual pre-tax profit to $781,000, saying the result reflected flat consumer spending patterns.

Pumpkin Patch fell 3c to $1.90. On Wednesday it reported a 76 per cent rise in profit.

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In the US, stocks fell after a weak reading on the labour market dropped stocks through a key technical level, validating the worries of those who thought the recent rally was flimsy.

Major indexes were little changed for most of the day before the Standard & Poor's 500 broke below 1130, the high end of the summer's trading range. Investors had hoped that the level would hold despite low trading volume, which raised questions about the rally's stamina.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.7 per cent at 10,662.42, the S&P 500 Index finished down 0.8 per cent at 1124.83, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.3 per cent at 2327.08.

- NZPA