Craigs Investment Partners investment director Mark Lister said Mainfreight’s margins in particular were much lower than investors were expecting.
“It just looks like they’ve had a really tough start to the 2026 financial year. I think everyone knows and believes that it’s a great business for the long term, but over the near term, meaning the next six months to 12 months, uncertainty is high,” Lister said.
Craigs analysts also downgraded the business and said the short-term outlook was uncertain, but the firm liked the long-term growth potential of the business.
Infratil also had a soft day, falling 3.08% to $11.63 on turnover worth $13.4m.
Spark also traded on high turnover, with the shares dipping 0.61% to $2.43.
Meanwhile, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 0.11% late in the day, lifting its share price to $36.80, as did Contact Energy, which was up 0.22% at $9.11.
In the US, the Federal Reserve met today, with no change to interest rates. Lister said Jerome Powell was probably a little more hawkish than people were expecting.
Tech giants Meta and Microsoft also both released strong results, with Microsoft reporting profit of US$27.2 billion ($33.4b) because of its AI and cloud growth, while Meta beat expectations, reporting a revenue jump of 22% year-over-year to US$47.5b.
“All eyes will be on Amazon and Apple overnight tonight, and then you’ve got some really big economic releases on Friday in the US including the jobs report, which is a key one,” Lister said.
Overseas news
Wall Street stocks finished mostly lower on Wednesday (local time) after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates flat and refrained from signalling it will soon cut interest rates.
The Fed, as expected, held interest rates steady, despite relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump for an interest rate cut. In a press conference, Fed chairman Jerome Powell emphasised future monetary policy decisions would depend on economic data.
“Powell sounded more hawkish than what markets were hoping for,” said Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones.
Futures markets lowered their odds for a September interest rate cut after the press conference and statement, which included no major tweaks that would have implied an imminent interest rate cut.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.4% at 44,461.28.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.1% to 6362.90, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.2% to 21,129.67.
Earlier, economic data showed the US economy returned to expansion in the second quarter, notching 3% growth after a contraction in the first quarter.
However, GDP in both quarters was heavily influenced by import activity in response to Trump’s aggressive trade policy.
– Additional reporting AFP
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
