Yesterday, US stock futures had suggested that market was heading for a good session overnight, but while the markets there opened stronger, the benchmark S&P 500 Index ended down 1.6 per cent.
A statement by Treasury's NZ Debt Management unit about its issuing programme over the next three months also impacted sentiment because of the sheer size of it.
To date in the financial year ending June, the unit has sold just $8 billion of bonds.
The $25b in bonds to be sold in the year ending June is more than New Zealand has ever sold in one year before. Previously, the biggest year of issuance was in the 2010/11 fiscal year, which totalled $19.5b.
Given the amount of money the government is spending to cushion the economy against the shock caused by the coronavirus crisis and the current lockdown, which will last at least another three weeks and probably longer, "clearly, they're going to borrow more," Speizer said.
"That's a lot for the market to absorb. The Reserve Bank has said it will buy $30b – clearly they're going to have to front load."
New Zealand health authorities today made it clear the country is aiming to eliminate the virus, rather than just "smooth the curve" of too many people needing hospital treatment at once.
The number of confirmed and probable infections rose by 61 today to 708 but the only death so far was a woman who died last Sunday.
Worldwide, the numbers continue to escalate, particularly in the US where those infected rose to 188,578. That's up from 11,075 on March 24.
The New Zealand dollar was trading at 97.11 Australian cents from 97.43 cents at 5pm yesterday. It was at 48.01 British pence from 48.74, at 53.93 euro cents from 54.55, at 64.10 yen from 65.19 and at 4.2139 Chinese yuan from 4.2627.
The bid price on the two-year swap rate closed at 0.5050 per cent from 0.5150 yesterday, while 10-year swaps were at 0.8700 per cent from 0.9175 per cent.
