The New Zealand sharemarket dived in early trading as fear roiled global markets, with stocks sinking and the US dollar making its biggest one-day gain in nearly two years against most currencies.Commodity prices fell, with oil prices sliding 2.8 percent,
The New Zealand sharemarket dived in early trading as fear roiled global markets, with stocks sinking and the US dollar making its biggest one-day gain in nearly two years against most currencies.
Commodity prices fell, with oil prices sliding 2.8 percent, on fears that a global economic slowdown led by the United States and China would reduce demand for raw materials.
Fears about the sustainability of the global economic recovery increased after the US Federal Reserve announced this week it would use cash from maturing mortgage bonds it holds to buy more government debt, maintaining the current level of monetary stimulus.
Adding to investors' woes was data showing a slowdown in Chinese investment and factory output growth, coupled with a Bank of England downgrade of its growth forecast and a dovish tone from its governor, Mervyn King.
Fletcher Building shares fell 10c early to 747, Freightways lost 6c to 265, Nuplex was down 6c to 294, Sky City dropped 6c to 300, Fisher&Paykel Healthcare fell 5c to 286, Hallenstein Glasson gave up 5c to 385, Mainfreight dropped 5c to 645, and The Warehouse lost 5c to 345.
Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 29.71 points to 3006.3, after yesterday dropping 9.1 points.
NZ Oil&Gas fell 3c to 121, Contact Energy was down 3c to 566, Sky TV lost 3c to 500, and Port of Tauranga was down 3c to 672.
Dual-listed ANZ was down 75c or 2.6 percent early to 2775, while Westpac dropped 51c or 1.8 percent to 2799.
In the United States, stocks erased the year's gains.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 2.5 percent at 10,378.83, the Standard&Poor's 500 Index was down 2.8 percent at 1089.47, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 3 percent at 2208.63.
The Nasdaq was down 2.7 percent for the year, while the S&P 500 was down 2.3 percent and the Dow was down 0.5 percent.
