KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket slipped in early trading as stocks in the United States gave up some of their gains from the previous day.
Telecom was down 3c early to $2.48 on continuing good demand after rising 4c yesterday.
Among other leading stocks Fletcher Building gave up 10c early to $5.65, reversing most of its 11c gain yesterday during which the company announced it had sold $100 million of capital notes and the sale was still open. Contact Energy gained 4c early to $6.80.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 18.06 points to 2716.35, after yesterday rising 29.4 points as it hitched a ride on the US market which had rebounded beforehand.
Other stocks to fall early included Trustpower down 5c to $7.10, Sky City down 5c to $3.08, and Auckland Airport down 3c to $1.72.
Among the dual-listed banking stocks, Westpac dropped 44c to $18.81 and ANZ was down 14c to $16.20.
The few stocks to gain early included Rakon up 2c to $1.10 and Air NZ up 1c to 90c.
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In the US stocks were weighed down by Microsoft's proposed job cuts and disappointing earnings, while economic data showed further deterioration in the labour and housing markets.
Preliminary closing figures put the Dow Jones industrial average down 1.3 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index down 1.5 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index down 2.8 per cent.
- NZPA
