New Zealand shares ended flat with a negative bias on Tuesday, while Nikkei shares rallied to an all-time high.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index was little changed to close at 13,656.05.

Japan's Nikkei was up past 3% in recent Tuesday trade, reaching an all-time high.

Meanwhile, Wall Street shares also ended higher on Monday despite Fed independence fears. Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3% while the S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow closed 0.2% higher each.

In domestic news, New Zealand's business confidence was cheery in the last quarter of 2025, hitting its highest level since March 2014, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) said.

Also, New Zealand consumer spending softened in December 2025, with core retail sales through Worldline payments network falling 0.2% year on year to NZ$4.7 billion, highlighting a challenging retail environment and ongoing consumer caution, according to a Worldline report.

In corporate news, Napier Port Holdings (NZE:NPH) reported first-quarter total container volumes of 45,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), up 1.6% from 44,000 TEU a year earlier.

Fletcher Building (NZE:FBU, ASX:FBU) said meaningful recovery in its quarterly volumes will not flow into its businesses until fiscal 2027, as the gains are yet to be sustained and not enough to offset the impact of earlier losses.