“The index did follow in kind with US markets hitting record highs.
“The latter part of our session we came back somewhat,” Sullivan said.
“Looking ahead we’ve got a big couple of days for earnings in the US, as well as the Fed, so that’s probably going to be the main macro story for the markets.”
Five companies from the “Magnificent Seven” will report over the next day and a half, including Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Amazon and Apple.
On the NZ sharemarket, NZME upgraded its financial forecasts and said its revenue was likely to be better than expected.
The media company told the NZX this morning it expected operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) for 2025 to be between $59m and $62m. That was up on earlier guidance of between $57m and $59m.
“NZME is heavily reliant on ad spend and has done a bit of cost-cutting as well. There’s some positive momentum into FY26 for them, midpoint of their upgrade at 12% year on year,” Sullivan said.
NZME’s share price rallied 6.67% or 7c to $1.12 after 900,674 shares changed hands on turnover worth $1m.
Elsewhere, market minnow New Talisman Gold Mines’ share price rallied by 16.98% to $0.06 after the firm announced it had signed an agreement for the offtake of gold concentrate.
However, the regulator swiftly applied a trading halt to the company after the update.
“They said their announcement wasn’t price-sensitive, but their stock went up 17%. They said they were freezing it and were going to have a closer look at it. If the market thinks it’s price-sensitive, it probably should have been [treated as such].”
Other movers today included Vista Group, which fell 3.91% or 11c to $2.70; A2 Milk, which rose 1.90% or 20c to $10.70; and Contact Energy, which fell 0.63% or 6c to $9.40.
Sullivan said the lead-in from the US was interesting, particularly for the fact that it featured the widest ever divergence of companies on the S&P 500 in a positive day.
“There were 102 that were positive, and 398 that were negative, and yet the market closed up. That’s the widest it’s ever been. Nvidia now makes up 8% of the S&P 500, the largest since General Motors in the 1970s.
“Now when Nvidia moves, so does the market.”
Wall Street stocks rose to fresh records again on Tuesday local time as a jump in artificial intelligence player Nvidia’s shares added to bullishness over easing trade tensions and market-friendly central bank policy.
All three major US indices climbed to records for the third straight session, with Nvidia piling on about 5% as the chipmaker announced new ventures and chief executive Jensen Huang headlined a company event in Washington.
Donald Trump is due to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Thursday in South Korea – and rosy comments by the US President have fuelled optimism that the world’s two largest economies, China and the United States, can strike a deal to ease their trade war.
– Additional reporting AFP
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
Listen and subscribe to the Today in Business podcast – the top headlines from the NZ Herald business team summarised and delivered by an AI voice as an easily digestible recap.
