Amid increasing calls for the United States Government's $700 billion ($NZ1060 billion) rescue package for the finance sector to be urgently addressed, Asia-Pacific sharemarkets continued to take the lead from New York, trading positively but weakly yesterday.
Bourses around the world are being driven by sentiment and the outcome of daily trading in New York, with American investors still unsure whether the rescue plan will be accepted by Congress.
The plan aims to shore up bad debt mortgages which prompted the crisis.
On Monday, there was a larger-than-expected selling spree in New York, with indexes down 3%-4%, but the following day the rush eased, with the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.47%, the Nasdaq Composite down 1.18% and the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index down 1.56%.
Similarly, losses on Tuesday eased to small gains on the NZX yesterday, with its SE 50 index up 0.9% at 3259.68.
This was mirrored on the Australian Stock Exchange, with the All Ords index up 1% and S&P 200 up 1.2%.
ABN Amro Craigs broker Chris Timms said trading was generally "light" for most of the day as investors remained "very cautious" and good gains on small to medium-range stocks were on very light share volumes.
Trading picked up later in day for major stocks, with Telecom up 1.43% at $2.84, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare up 1% at $3.04, Fletcher Building up 1.2% at $7.39, but Contact Energy down 1.2% to $8.50.
He said of the five main Asian bourses three were up, with the Shanghai Composite down most at 2.6% and the Korean Kospi leading at 1%.
As US legislators debated the $US700 billion rescue proposal, Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd said the plan was "not acceptable", despite pleas for urgent action by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, AFP reported yesterday.
"Investors are beginning to fear that the bailout plan, as described on Thursday night and Friday, may be falling prey to politics," said Kevin Giddis, an analyst at Morgan Keegan.
"This political gamesman- ship could alter or even delay the funding of the bailout, and that is only going to make the markets jitterier."
Mr Bernanke warned that despite unprecedented steps already taken in the crisis, global financial markets "remain under extraordinary stress".
Mr Paulson, echoing Mr Bernanke's comments, warned that if Congress did not act quickly, a credit crisis could threaten "all parts of our economy".