Jeremy Sullivan, investment adviser with Hamilton Hindin Greene, said the Federal Reserve cut interest rates quickly last year and is now taking a wait-and-see approach.

“There are still some pockets of persistent inflation, and the Fed wants to see how President Trump’s policies affect the US economy,” he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.23% to 44,747.11 points; S&P 500 declined 0.47% to 6039.31; and Nasdaq Composite decreased 0.51% to 19,632.32. Nvidia was down a further 4.03% to US$123.79.

In after-hours trading, Microsoft fell 4.63% to US$421.85 after beating Wall Street forecasts for second-quarter profit and revenue but said its Azure cloud computing platform and other cloud services were growing at a slower pace.

At home, the ANZ Business Confidence index was down 8 points to plus 54 in January, and expected own activity eased 4 points to plus 46, still both very high, while past own activity was stable.

ANZ said it was a slightly less encouraging start to the New Year for businesses.

“The January survey doesn’t suggest the recovery in the economic activity has stalled, though firms may be reassessing how long they might have to wait to get back to a new ‘normal’,” the bank said.

In its monthly Property Focus report, ANZ is forecasting a 6% rise in house prices over the year, made up of a slow start and a more meaningful upswing in prices in the second half of the year.

ANZ said house prices have returned to growth in recent months with sales volumes trending higher, but there is a large backlog of stock on the market. Momentum suggests prices will track sideways in the near term.

Auckland International Airport was down 22c or 2.49% to $8.60 on trade worth $9.54m; Fisher and Paykel Healthcare shed 34c to $37.83; Chorus declined 15c or 1.71% to $8.555; Fletcher Building decreased 7c or 2.39% to $2.86; and Port of Tauranga eased 9c to $6.37.

Mainfreight was down 83c to $71.37; Freightways eased 8c to $10.66; Stride Property declined 3c or 2.29% to $1.28; Vista Group shed 6c or 1.9% to $3.10; Allied Farmers decreased 3c or 3.8% to 76c; and Burger Fuel fell 2.5c or 7.04% to 33c.

In the energy sector, Contact was down 13c to $9.27; Meridian eased 2c to $5.83; and Mercury increased 21c or 3.43% to $6.34.

Meridian has signed an agreement with joint venture partner Harmony Energy/First Renewables to buy all the generation from the new Tauhei Solar Farm near Te Aroha in the first 10 years of its operation.

The solar farm, the country’s biggest to date, will be completed late next year and will generate 280 gigawatt hours of electricity each year, enough to power 35,000 homes.

Sky TV rebounded 10c or 3.57% to $2.90; Ebos Group was up $1 or 2.62% to $39.20; Hallenstein Glasson increased 22c or 2.64% to $8.54; and Investore gained 2c or 1.8% to $1.13.

Among other gainers, Marsden Maritime Holdings increased 10c or 3.13% to $3.30; Heartland Group collected 4c or 3.81% to $1.09; and General Capital added 1.5c or 5.66% to 28c.

Software firm Blackpearl Group fell 11c or 10.09% to 98c after reporting a 7% increase in annual recurring revenue to $11.1m in the third quarter ending December compared with the previous quarter. For the year the revenue rose 100%. Subscription revenue was up 24% quarter-on-quarter to $2.1m.

Blackpearl told the market it is testing a new product, an advanced AI-powered conversational platform, for sales and marketing solutions.

“Think of it as ChatGPT, but purpose-built for driving business growth and revenue. The product will be fully self-service and aggressively priced,” the company said.

Being AI was up 0.005c or 1.79% to 28.5c. Its chair Andy Higgs has resigned and is leaving on Friday, following the other independent director Brett O’Riley who resigned earlier this week.

Being said the board is continuing discussions with potential replacements.