New Zealand shares retreated Thursday as investors shrugged off Wall Street's rally on the heels of Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential race.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index was down 0.5%, or 67.80 points, to close at 12,581.37.

Markets are digesting the results of the presidential poll that will see Trump return to the White House for a second term.

Wall Street closed at all-time highs overnight, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 3.6%, Nasdaq Composite advancing 3%, and S&P 500 rising 2.5%.

"A Trump Presidency is likely to mean the implementation of bigger trade tariffs, tax cuts, less regulation and higher deficit spending," according to Andrew Lawrence, analyst at TS Lombard.

In Asia, shares were mixed, with the Shanghai SSE up nearly 0.9%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rising 1.2%, and Japan's Nikkei 225 down 0.4%.

In domestic news, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand looked poised to slow its easing cycle by next year after data showed that the unemployment rate went up to 4.8% in the September quarter from 4.6%, according to ANZ Research.

Elsewhere, New Zealand's total official reserve assets rose to NZ$39.57 billion in October from NZ$32.54 billion in September, Thursday data from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand showed.

In corporate news, Rua Bioscience's (NZE:RUA) shares hit an all-time low following the announcement of its NZ$3.1 million rights issue. The offer has an issue price of NZ$0.025, an almost 48% discount to the five-day volume-weighted average price of Rua shares.

Serko (NZE:SKO, ASX:SKO) said Chief Operating Officer Charlie Nowaczek will step down in late January 2025. Serko's shares rose nearly 3%.