The New Zealand sharemarket fell when it started trading this morning after Wall Street's 100-point fall at the end of trading last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its steepest one-day drop since November after JP Morgan Chase reported deep fo
The New Zealand sharemarket fell when it started trading this morning after Wall Street's 100-point fall at the end of trading last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its steepest one-day drop since November after JP Morgan Chase reported deep fourth-quarter loan losses.
Prominent among companies losing ground early today in this country was insurer and investment manager Tower, which fell 10c or 4.6% to $2.06, although volume was low.
Contact Energy was down 8c early to $6.10, Port of Tauranga fell 5c to $7.05, Fisher&Paykel Healthcare dropped 3c to $3.35 and NZ Oil & Gas was down 3c to $1.59.
Telecom slipped 1c to $2.50 and Fletcher Building was also down 1c, to $8.30.
At 10.15am the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 9.11 points to 3248.84, after declining 20.4 points on Friday.
Stocks gaining early included NZ Refining Co, up 8c to $3.84, and Cavalier Corp up 5c to $2.75, both on low volume.
In the US, JPMorgan's loan losses raised concerns about bank profits, while weaker-than-expected results from a consumer survey increased unease about incomes and unemployment.
For the week, the Dow ended down 0.1%, the S&P 500 fell 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.3%. New York markets will be closed tonight (NZ time) for the Martin Luther holiday.
