A rebound is expected for the opening of the New Zealand and Australia sharemarkets on Friday. Traders saw Wall Street break its six-session losing streak overnight.
New Zealand's sharemarket closed lower on Thursday, dropping to a six-week low.
Trading came after the Reserve Bank of NZ left its benchmark Official Cash Rate unchanged.
The benchmark NZX-50 index dropped 36.65 points or 1.05 percent to close at 3,488.75.
The NZ Stock Exchange reported trading volume of 43.4 million shares valued at NZ$128.0 million.
Among the most heavily traded stocks of the session, Auckland International Airport closed down NZ$0.04, Air NZ was unchanged, Contact Energy was down .16, Fletcher Building was down .18, Fisher & Paykel Appliances was down .02, Pyne Gould was unchanged, SkyCity Entertainment was down .01 and Telecom Corp of NZ was down .03.
For the Australia-NZ dual-listed stocks, Telstra closed down .04, Westpac Bank was up .26, Australia and NZ Bank was up .16, AMP was down .02, APN News & Media was up .02 and Goodman Fielder was up .03.
Across the Tasman Sea, Australia's market managed a gain, ending a six-session losing streak.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index gained 12.8 points or 0.3 percent to close at 4,549.6 while the broader All Ordinaries index rose 13.0 points or 0.3 percent to 4,621.7.
Trading volume was 2.48 billion shares valued at A$5.3 billion.
The financial sector led the gains. Among the big banks, Australia and NZ Banking Group closed up A$0.16, Commonwealth Bank of Australia rose .28, National Australia Bank was up .20 and Westpac Bank added .26. Investment bank Macquarie Group was up .37.
In the mining sector, BHP Billiton closed up .16, Rio Tinto was up .19, Fortescue Metals was unchanged and OZ Minerals was up .03.
Gold miner Newcrest Mining was down .26.
In U.S. trading on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 75.42 points or 0.63 percent to close at 12,124.36, the Nasdaq Composite index rose 9.49 points or 0.35 percent to 2,684.87 and the S&P 500 index added 9.44 points or 0.74 percent to close at 1,289.00.
Except for Japan's, all of the other major Asia/Pacific region markets closed lower on Thursday.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 average gained 17.69 points or 0.19 percent to close at 9,467.15.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was down 51.80 points or 0.23 percent at 22,609.83.
The Shanghai Composite index in China was down 46.97 points or 1.71 percent at 2,703.32.
India's BSE 30/SENSEX index was down 9.39 points or 0.05 percent at 18,384.90.
In Indonesia, the Jakarta Composite index was down 19.63 points or 0.51 percent at 3,806.19.
South Korea's KOSPI/Seoul Composite index was down 11.93 points or 0.57 percent at 2,071.42.
The Taiwan Weighted Index was down 6.59 points or 0.07 percent at 9,000.94.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.