KEY POINTS:
The already battered New Zealand sharemarket has fallen more than 2 per cent today following another torrid session on Wall Street.
United States stocks tumbled in volatile trade as crude oil prices raced to record highs above US$144 ($192) a barrel, triggering fresh economic jitters.
Investors fear soaring oil prices could prolong an existing economic slowdown.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.5 per cent.
It is down 15 per cent this year and over 20 per cent from the October peak, officially denoting a bear market.
Here, the benchmark NZSX-50 index is down 68 points, at 3094 - a fall of 2.2 per cent today.
It has lost 1.8, 0.4, 0.6, 1 and 2 per cent in successive sessions and slumped a whopping 12 per cent in June.
"We are down across the board," Macquarie Equities broker Ian Witters said.
"I don't think we are seeing anything different to what we have been seeing. The reality is it's sentiment driven - people concerned about a slowing economy."
He said international markets were the key.
Witters said some investors were starting to buy on the basis that dividend yields were attractive.
However, then the question arose as to whether earnings and dividends were sustainable, he said.
"You are starting to see people saying `we should be putting our toe back in the water and buying again'."
"On a p/e (prices earnings) ratio they look cheap but the question remains, can they maintain earnings."
Top stock Telecom slipped to a new 15-year low of 331, down 12c to 327, with international investors prominent among the sellers.
No 2 stock Contact Energy, which yesterday shed 25c, was today down 14c to 774 with No 3 Fletcher Building down 13c to 619.
The only rising stocks in the top 50 were Vector, up 1c to 194 and Steel & Tube, up 3c to 255.
Exchange operator NZX was down 5c to 740, with it expected to be hit by low volumes traded.
The Warehouse, still awaiting an overdue court decision on whether Foodstuffs and/or Woolworths can launch takeover bids, was down 4c to 389.
New entrant to the top 50, Pike River Coal, was down 20c to 220 following a "correction" in the value of US coal stocks, while its parent, NZOG, came down 6c from a record high to 175.
In the US, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 166.75 points or 1.46 per cent at 11,215.51 after failing to hold gains struck in earlier trading.
The technology-laden Nasdaq composite finished down 53.51 points or 2.32 per cent at 2251.46, while the Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index lost 23.39 points or 1.82 per cent to close at 1261.52.
- NZPA
