KEY POINTS:
Market leader Telecom pulled the sharemarket down in early business today despite US blue chips pushing to record highs.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 7.1 points to 4186.49 at 10.10am.
Telecom lost half of yesterday's 6c gain to be on 485. It went up with the Australian market yesterday.
Investors continue to assess a number of uncertainties facing the future of Telecom, including how much will be distributed to shareholders from the sale of the Yellow Pages Group.
Contact Energy eased 3c to 901 while Rubicon was down 3c to 96.
Fletcher Building gained 5c to 1165 -- just 5c off its record high. Its strength was put down to a rise in building stocks in Australia, particularly James Hardie Industries, which is seen as benefiting from strong home starts in the US.
Guinness Peat Group was up 2c to 230 after booking a profit of about A$172 million ($195 million) from the sale of its 19.4 per cent stake in funds manager Australian Wealth Management (AWM).
AWM was spun off from insurance group Tower in early 2005.
Among the minnows, Savoy Equities took a 67 per cent leap from 3c to 5c on a small parcel.
* * *
On Wall Street, upbeat earnings news helped power the leading Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record closing high today as the blue chip index climbed above 12,800 for the first time.
The benchmark Dow index rose 30.80 points (0.24 per cent) to 12,803.84, bursting its prior all-time closing high of 12,786.64 which was struck on February 20.
The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index finished up 1.02 points at 1472.50, but technology stocks did not fare so well.
The tech-rich Nasdaq composite index closed down 6.45 points (0.26 per cent) at 2510.50.
- NZPA