KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket was flat in early trading, after stocks in the United States posted some modest gains.
US investors received some encouragement from a US$800 billion ($1.5 trillion) Federal Reserve plan to buy mortgage-related debt and back consumer loans.
Even though the Fed's plan raised hopes that credit might loosen up, analysts said there were concerns about the long-term cost of the government's initiatives to avert a deep recession.
"The markets are becoming alarmed by the amount of money being thrown at the problem, not that it's not needed, but it's a staggering amount of money," said Peter Kenny, managing director of Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.
In this country the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 1.31 points to 2636.19 around 10.15am, after yesterday's rise of nearly 60 points.
Helping the market today, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 4c early to $3.05, Port of Tauranga was up 8c to $5.70, Rakon added 3c to $1.15, and Telecom was up 1c to $2.29.
Dual-listed banking stock Westpac was up 105c to $20.95, while ANZ Banking Group added 21c to $16.90.
Stocks falling early included Fletcher Building, down 5c to $5.63, NZ Oil & Gas down 6c to $1.28, F&P Appliances down 2c to $1.35, and Auckland Airport down 2c to $1.68.
Resins and chemicals company Nuplex was down 2c to $3.80, after sliding 68c yesterday after predicting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation would fall this year to $110m from $121.8m.
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In the US, unofficially the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.4 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.7 per cent, but the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.5 per cent.
The Nasdaq ended lower as technology shares were hurt by concerns that demand may be weakening after bellwether Cisco Systems said that it will close most of its operations in the US and Canada for five days in an effort to cut costs.
- NZPA
