The New Zealand sharemarket edged down in early trading, with leading stocks Fletcher Challenge and Contact Energy both making small early losses.
The flat start comes after stocks in the United States closed out their worst January ever with another slide on Friday (local time). Data showed theUS economy contracted at the fastest pace in nearly 27 years in the fourth quarter.
In this country the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 1.68 points to 2772.46 around 10.20am. On Friday the index had firmed 4 points, seen as a good effort in the context of down days on other markets.
Among leading stocks, Contact Energy was down 2c early today to $6.85, Fletcher Building slipped 3c to $5.62, while Telecom was unmoved at $2.66.
Stocks recording rises early included carpet marker Cavalier Corp, up 3c to $1.94, Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 2c to $1.27, NZX up 5c to $5.55, Rakon up 4c to $1.00, and Trustpower up 4c to $7.50.
Early losers included Sky City down 5c to 305 and Mainfreight down 3c to 415.
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In the US on Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.8 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 2.3 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 2.1 per cent.
Both the Dow and the benchmark S&P 500 suffered their worst January ever, with the Dow down 8.8 per cent and the S&P down 8.6 per cent. The Nasdaq dropped 6.4 per cent in January.
