KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket started the week on a flat note, following falls in United States equities as oil prices rose at the end of last week.
US stocks fell on Friday (local time) as a US$15.5 billion ($21.6 billion) quarterly loss from General Motors and the oil price rise added to fears the US economy could slip into recession and concerns about corporate earnings.
A government report showing US employers cut jobs for the seventh straight month in July added to market worries, though the decline in payrolls was not as severe as had been feared.
Around 10.10am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 3.24 points to 3299.92, after losing 33 points on Friday.
Top stock Telecom was down 1c to 366 early, while Fletcher Building added 4c to 630 as it struggles to pull up from a three-year low of 598 in mid-July.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 2c to 282, while Cavalier Corporation was up 5c to 240 on low volume, and Port of Tauranga was up 14c to 649, also on a small number of shares.
Ryman Healthcare slipped 4c early to 161, Sky City was down 3c to 342, with Tower also losing 3c, to 210.
Briscoe Group was unchanged on 103, after reporting second quarter sales down 2.28 per cent to $91.7 million but, in a less pessimistic tone than in recent retail sector announcements, said July sales were higher than anticipated.
Dual-listed AMP was down 20c to 760, having lost 58c on Friday after announcing the suspension of its AMP Capital NZ Property Fund.
Children's clothing retailer Pumpkin Patch lifted 5c to 150, electricity and gas distributor Vector was up 4c to 229, and web-based accounting software company Xero lifted 8c to 88.
In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.45 per cent at 11,326.32. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.56 per cent at 1260.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.63 per cent at 2310.96.
For the week, the Dow ended down 0.4 per cent, the S&P closed up 0.2 per cent and the Nasdaq ended flat.
- NZPA