KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket gained in early trading following some glimpses of good news out of the United States overnight.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 10.2 points to 2790.49, after ending yesterday up 8.8 points.
Among leading stocks Fletcher Building was up 6c early to 560, Contact Energy also gained 6c, to 694, while Telecom was flat on 267.
Other early risers included Steel & Tube up 5c to 315, Sky TV up 4c to 422, Tower up 3c to 175, and Auckland Airport up 2c to 187.
The few stocks to fall early included Sky City, which lost 3c to 309.
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In the United States, heartening news on housing and corporate earnings helped Wall Street to set aside some of its angst about the economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 have had their first gains in three sessions.
The National Association of Realtors said that buyers stepped in to snap up properties at steep discounts in December. And upbeat earnings reports from drugmakers Merck & Co. and Schering Plough pulled the market higher.
The Dow ended up a preliminary 1.8 per cent, with the S&P 500 up 1.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite index up 1.5 per cent.
- NZPA