KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket took its lead from a depressed Wall Street in early trading today.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index dropped 23.07 points to 4204.49 by 10.15am, more than erasing yesterday's gain.
US stocks tumbled as bond yields shot to their highest in five years, stoking fears higher borrowing costs could cut into corporate profits and discourage takeovers.
Only 8 million shares valued at $32m were traded in the first quarter of an hour. Falls outnumbered rises 15-28 among the 90 stocks traded.
Only Port of Tauranga, up 1c to 691 and Steel & Tube, up 5c to 465, were up among the top 50 stocks.
Of the top three, Telecom was down 4c to 459, Fletcher Building was down 1c to 1279 and Contact Energy was down 12c to 870.
The Australian newspaper reported British Telecom executive Paul Reynolds was believed to be the front-runner to replace Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung and front running finance chief Marko Bogoievski did not make a shortlist of two.
The falls were across the board. Among the bigger falls, Infratil lost 6c to 320, Rakon was down 6c to 527, Tenon down 5c to 265 and Team Talk down 4c to 250.
Meat company Affco continued its poor run, losing 4c, or 10 per cent, to 36 cents.
Among the smaller stocks Wellington Drive -- which makes small motors -- was up 3c to 39c despite an unfavourable review of the company by columnist Chalkie in today's Independent Financial Review.
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In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 129.95 points, or 0.97 per cent, to end at 13,295.01.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 16.12 points, or 1.07 per cent, to finish at 1493.00 and the Nasdaq Composite Index slid 22.38 points, or 0.87 per cent, to close at 2549.77.
- NZPA