KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket marked time in early business today after staging a strong turnaround yesterday when ugly jobs data dramatically brought forward the prospect of rate cuts.
Wall Street gave a modestly positive lead after retail giant Wal-Mart reported sales were holding up better than expected.
US stocks rose modestly as upbeat news from retailers helped ease concerns about an economic downturn, taking the sting out of fresh record highs for crude oil prices.
The NZSX-50 benchmark was up 1.7 points to 3627 at 10.20am.
The leaders were mixed. Telecom was down 2c to 395 while No.2 stock Contact Energy was up 1c to 904. Fletcher Building was unchanged on 848.
Exporter Rakon rallied 3c to 320 in response to the lower dollar while GPG was also up 3c to 176.
The Warehouse was untraded after it reported a 4.3 per cent fall in third quarter sales. It said demand had softened. Retail stocks were socked this week after Briscoe Group reported a 10 per cent fall in same store sales.
Sentiment yesterday was buoyed by rising expectations of a cut in the Reserve Bank's Official Cash Rate (OCR) as soon as July, instead of the end of this year or early 2009, to help stimulate the economy.
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 51.38 points (0.40 per cent) to 12,865.73 and the Nasdaq composite added 12.75 points (0.52 per cent) to 2451.24.
The Standard & Poor's broad-market index increased 5.02 points (0.36 per cent) to a preliminary close of 1,397.59.
- NZPA
