KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket was slightly weaker as trading began after the two-day Christmas holiday.
Activity is expected to be subdued over the Christmas/New Year period with only six trading days, and many market participants on holiday.
Shortly after opening, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 0.8 points at 4057.9, holding on to Monday's 65-point gain.
Among the stocks to move early, Telecom was down a cent at 440, Contact Energy rose 8c to 848, and Fletcher Building lost 5c to 1115.
F&P Healthcare, ranked highly by brokers for the coming year, was up 2c at 350, while F&P Appliances fell 4c to 346.
Auckland Airport was 1c lower at 295, having gaining 16c on Monday after directors announced the previous week that they had signed a confidentiality deed with an international party interested in the company.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has already opened its bid to take its stake in the airport to 40 per cent.
Freightways was down 4c at 365, Mainfreight rose 3c to 657, Infratil was steady at 292, Rakon was down a cent at 385, and fish exporter Sanford rose a cent to 408.
Trustpower, whose South Australian wind farm project delivered power before Christmas Day, was untraded.
There are no scheduled corporate announcements over the holiday period.
On Wall Street, US stocks were mostly flat as worries about a sales forecast from Target Inc and falling home prices were offset by gains in energy shares.
Amazon.com shares helped the Nasdaq, after the online retailer said the 2007 holiday season was its strongest yet.
However, Target warned its December same-store sales would fall short of expectations, fuelling concerns about some retailers' sales this holiday shopping season.
Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp rose 1.4 per cent to $94.99 after US crude oil futures hit their highest level since November. Exxon topped the list of the Dow's major advancers.
- NZPA